


Days in the Life of a Thieving Youth

by TheAntiHero



Series: The Follies and Endeavors of a Water Dragon’s Army [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Comedy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-17 07:24:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9311426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAntiHero/pseuds/TheAntiHero
Summary: Every day, Nina added one color more to her painting, whether it was elegant, pretty, or just plain ugly.





	1. Nina and Shura

**Author's Note:**

> Originally started: May, 2016

Meet Nina.

  
Nina was short for Eponine, the name her father gave her; she claimed she didn't like it, so she insisted that all went by her aforementioned nickname. Nina was a girl with interesting qualities and colors, colors which were bizarre and strange; few could remake such a hue, no matter how much painted they mixed.

  
Nina, likewise, was a crafty girl.

  
Nina had plenty potential to be a conniving girl. Often times, she acted upon, sharpening even, such potential.

  
Nina got away with a lot of things... Somehow. Perhaps it was that girlish charm of hers, but then again, such 'girlish' charm never got far with guys, who she, not even to save her poor life, could not communicate with them. So... Perhaps Nina was just had a knack for getting away with stuff. In certain aspects, that was applaudable. Others... Not so much. Nonetheless, she got away with almost every instance anyways, regardless of how moral they were.

  
Every once and a while, when Corrin invited her to his quarters for a chat, Nina would try to snag something- anything- whether it be a book or a quill or a... Pair of boxer shorts. This was easily something to discriminate, seeing that Corrin was very kind to her even when he was aware of the strange whereabouts her daydreams wandered.

  
Flushing, she leaned her head from side to side, her voice with a slight quiver.

  
"It was nice having you over today, Nina." Corrin smiled. "Our chat was lovely. I'll have you over again sometime soon; I make it an endeavor of mine to know as many of my troops as I can."

  
"Oh no, no need to worry about boring ol' me," she said, hiding her prize behind her thigh as she backed towards the doorway. "I'm a simple girl, you know? I think you should take the time to learn more about people way more interesting... Well, unless you're planning to also invite one of your guy friends the next time I'm over..." she chortled then, hiding a smirk. 

Corrin laughed with her for completely different reasons.

  
"You're such a joker."

  
Sometimes, Nina was so good at getting away with things, even if she blatantly told the person she was robbing was being robbed, they wouldn't bat an eye.

  
"No, no, really! It would be really fun to have a quartet some night. I mean, all I do is come over here and steal some of your stuff while you're not looking... No fun in that, right?"

  
This only made Corrin laugh once again.

  
"Ha! Who knew you were such a wise-cracker; you're just like your father almost, except less... Offensive."

  
And, the first thing Nina did upon departing from Corrin's quarters was dart straight over to the camp where the maze of tents stood, all staked tightly into the ground. She made her way into its heart, passing by those shooting a breeze, those arguing... Of course, she had to stop and watch when she caught eye of some boys in the heat of a wrestling match.

  
At last, she arrived where she intended to arrive; with the tip of her boot, she kicked the leather entrance of one of the many tents, waiting for the flap to vomit its inhabitant, and vomit its inhabitant it did; exit a young man, his face timid, but his shoulders fairly broad. He looked up at her with wonder.

  
"Nina..." he said softly. "Can I help you?"

  
"Not at all, Ignatius." she announced, holding out an article of clothing. "You said you needed a new pair of underwear, didn't you? Lucky I just so happened to know where to get one."

  
Quickly, as he slid out of his tent, Ignatius' eyes widened, his hands hesitantly reaching out to receive what was offered.   
"Um... Wow... Thank you." he started awkwardly. "Are they uh... New?"

  
A flush crept across her face.

  
"I'm not entirely sure how to answer that... Let's just call it gently used." it was with that, she turned around, flipping one of her long braids over her shoulder. "Enjoy!" she walked away before Ignatius could say anything more.

  
Rather pleased with herself, Nina walked along camp, enjoying the breeze of the day; there was unarguably great weather, just a hint of hickory smoke steaming from the mess hall (a hearty dinner was surely in store for tonight), the birds chirped along...

  
...Well, like usual, things were going her way...

  
"Hey kid." a raspy voice sounded from above.

  
Now, Nina was a rational person; even though the voice clearly came from above her ears, she knew that people, besides those mounted atop wyverns, could not fly. So, being logical, she chose not to listen to her instincts and look up, but instead began to search around her, not seeing a soul besides those in the distance, obviously not wielding a voice loud enough to reach her ears as clearly as this; she gave up soon, then craned her neck upwards.

  
A man was sitting atop a thick branch in a tree, dressed in green, a quiver of arrows in his lap; he was busy sharpening their tips, replacing them in their container before moving on to the next. A cape trailed down his back, smooshed against the trunk of his chair; his hair was a mix between gray and black, wrinkles gradually beginning to show on his tan skin.   
She frowned.

  
"Shura." she replied back, unsure of how to greet him. It was obvious as to why; she didn't have a lick of an idea of who this guy was, even though her eyes were almost everywhere with her tendency of... For a lack of better words... Spying. Shura was a pruning man; he wasn't cute. Like heck Nina had any reasons to follow him around, observing him from afar. She knew little, that little being just a name.

  
"Funny seeing you here, I was just thinking about 'cha."

  
Her face soured.

  
"Y-You were thinking about me?" she echoed, almost horrified. "Don't you know how creepy that makes you sound?"

  
"Hey, don't act like you're any less creepy. Stand still for a moment and listen to what else I have to say for Pete's sake." he put another arrow in his quiver, careful not to drop it. "You know, you and I are the only adventurers around, haven't you noticed? I say those of the same class should stick together, sound about right? I mean, it's not like we already don't share a whole lot in common; you're a thief too, aren't you?"

  
She crossed her arms quickly, shutting her eyes tightly.

  
"Not just some thief that steals something because they like it; I prey on the rich and powerful when they're rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. What sort of thievery do you do?"

  
Shura chuckled.

  
"Ah, so you're like a she-Robin Hood, hmm?"

  
She released a huff.

  
"Well it's no lie that Robin Hood was a favorite of mine when my father came to the Deeprealms every once in a blue moon to read me a story; I guess you could call me that if you wanted to."

"Explains why you chose to fight with bows."

  
"Mmm hmm. Father's a bit to blame as well."

  
"Interesting. Well, my story's a bit different in comparison to yours, but I think we'd be great training partners. Whaddaya say? Care to exchange tips and tricks in the name of iron sharpening iron?"

  
She turned around, sighing, as she looked away.

  
"Listen here; if you're trying to hit on me, you should know I already have a boyfriend."

  
Shura, surprised, nearly rolled off his tree limb, a brow raising.

  
"Hittin' on you?" he echoed, stunned. Not even a second later, he groaned, rubbing his face with his calloused hand. "Geez, what's with it with you girls, always assuming every guy that talks to her is trying to crawl up her skirt? How much older am I to you? A few decades plus a half to grow on? What sort of twisted crud's going on in that head of yours?"

  
"Clearly nothing going on in your head." she shrugged, her frown dropping apathetically. "Hmm. Too bad. I guess we can't work together if we don't think alike. Sorry, maybe we can try again some other time." with that said, she walked away.

  
Shame on her, she would soon think; time after time, whether she knew him or not, she'd get so nervous talking to a boy should the conversation get too long, nervous enough to start to sound mean... Sometimes creepy even... Well. It was a thing of the past, she'd might as well put it behind her.

 


	2. Nina and the Liar

Nina was often times a girl that wasn't easily convinced; it was a form of hard-headedness she developed from... She really didn't know where she got it. Perhaps it was from that shady dealer that hung around her village during her younger days in the Deeprealms, always out to grab a quick buck by cheating her out of her hard earned 'whenever-her-dad-showed-up' allowance.

  
Fearing she may be cheated again, Nina didn't take well to ideas that sounded too good to be true ever since, and thus made it a life's expedition to find out if the truth was really there... And if it wasn't, she would expose the fiend and rain fury on their terrible souls, all with a maniacal cackle.

  
So, this is why, later on that uneventful day at supper time, Nina once again got herself into something she would have to drag herself out of; an angry hornet's nest sure it sting her a few times before she got away.

  
Supper was good that day, just as the smoke she smelled from earlier had promised. Inside the mess hall, plenty of meat was piled on her plate, smoked to near perfection, neighbored by boiled cabbage she was less likely to enjoy.

  
Now, as much as she hated to admit it, Nina was a bit of a lonely thing, not having many to go to when it came to sitting at dinner with; it had been this way for as long as she could remember, even stretching to the memories of the Deeprealms, so it was something she had learned to no longer complain over. After all, it was her strange habits she had to blame for this... Like doing little puppet shows to herself, or watching people from afar... Or just flat out stalking them. She had learned not too long ago that people apparently thought stalking was weird; the more she thought about it, she wasn't as surprised to figure that out as she thought she was; after all, she always had to make sure she was well hidden, so it was apparent she knew it was unacceptable all along...

  
One would surely think that Nina could simply go sit with her boyfriend she so boldly proclaimed before Shura to mend this ill case of loneliness, but the solution would never be so open and shut; he was sitting at the other side of the mess hall- the rowdy side where all the men were... And Nina, being Nina, could never sit somewhere where she would be surrounded by men... She might die of a heart attack for all she knew. It was true that Nina, being young, didn't always know what was best for herself, but at least it wasn't as though she didn't ever know what was best for herself.

  
So, having no other choices available to her (besides the dirty floor), Nina had to sit where the women were, squished between two with whom she wasn't acquainted. Though she was a somewhat talkative person when someone got her started, Nina was quiet during meals, nibbling awkwardly on her food, listening to the conversations and gossip surrounding her. Sometimes the gossip was juicy and had her ear immediately. Other times... She just tuned it out.

  
Today was one of those days when something fascinating snatched her interest.

  
Selena, the mother of an acquaintance of hers, Soliel, was eating at her side, bumping her with her elbow on rare occasions when Mozu, sitting across from them, looked up at her. She gazed with those young brown eyes of hers with interest; being a master at reading faces from watching them for so long, Nina knew a question was bound to surface sometime sooner or later.

  
"Miss Selena." Mozu said at last, retiring her fork.

  
"What is it." Selena replied, her voice heavy with attitude.

  
"I found my eyes on you every now and then during our last battle and I godda say, with a sword and a shield you make quite a dandy swordsman. What's the secret to your endurance, so much so that you aren't hindered when wounded?"

  
Curious, Nina tuned in, continuing to nibble on a slice of meat; through the corner of her eye, she watched as Selena, obviously flattered, set down her fork as well. She released a huff as she lay her elbows in the table, stretching them out, nearly invading the personal space of her neighbors.

  
"My secret, mm?" she started, giving her a wink. "Here's my secret: I can't feel pain. Whether it be the slightest prick of the end of a pencil or an axe chopping my arm off- I won't feel a thing!"

  
Mozu's eyes widened.

  
"Amazing! How could you possibly get yourself not to feel pain?"

  
"It's simple really; it's just mind over matter. You have to condition yourself, cutting a small bit of your skin and forcing yourself to believe it doesn't hurt one bit! Take this fork for example..."

  
And it was after that, Nina tuned out, her eyes rolling to the side. Not being able to feel pain? Yeah right. They'll see about that really soon.

  
So, as Selena kept on with her explaining, Nina pulled the half-eaten slice of meat out of her mouth and placed it onto her plate, then slowly slid a hand beneath the table. The two talking, completely unaware of the fact that she had something planned, or was even listening in the first place, kept on as though nothing was going to happen anytime soon. Well, nobody could really blame them; Nina was a girl of unpredictable behavior.

  
Her hand gradually slithered down her leg, pulling her upper body down. Before she knew it, the bottom of her chin met the surface of the table, her tongue sticking out as her fingers fondled around her ankle, completely unnoticed by anyone. Little did anybody know; what she was doing was unsheathing a knife strapped to her calf, which she slowly brought back up to the surface, still unnoticed by anyone... Strangely.

  
With the tiny blade in her hand, she sat there, her braids cascading down her back casually, her lips becoming small; for just a moment more, with the most innocent of looks, she listened to the conversation, Selena still going on about her cool 'ability'...

  
"In truth, it really takes a strong mind to master this sort of skill; perhaps it's not quite as easy as I made it out to be."

  
"Impressive! Do you think you'll be able to teach me how to do that?"

  
"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that... Like I said, it takes a very determined mind."

  
Nina decided she'd heard enough; holding her hand steady, she turned to the side, bringing the tip of her blade to Selena's arm; she could have sworn it was begging her to give it a small poke. And, always a charitable soul, Nina gladly complied.   
The room paused to listen to a shriek, then a tumble as Selena scrambled out of her chair, clutching the side of her arm with a tense hand. Both sides of the mess hall stood in concern, pushing their seats back urgently in hopes of being immediate help. Instead, what they saw was a perfectly fine Selena laying dramatically in the floor, shivering in surprise... And just a little ways from her sat Nina, also surprised, but for completely different reasons. She sat still, holding a small knife in her grip; it was too late for her to hide it by the time she realized everybody could see it. With nothing else to do when every pair of eyes (and the one of her father's) was on her, she grinned, feeling waves of heat rush up her body, painting her face red.

  
Well, at least she knew that Selena was lying... But boy did it come with a hefty price.

  
"What's the meaning of this?" A voice boomed, Corrin's, as he plowed through the group of men. In the meantime, Laslow rushed past him, arriving at the side of his fallen wife, laying a gentle hand over her. Before long, Nina received many nasty looks.

  
"This young girl here is our matter." Laslow grimaced. "Trying to harm my wife? What has she done to you to cause you to stab her?"

  
Nina bolted out of her seat, shoving the knife back into its sheath.

  
"S-Stab her? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, I'd never-"

  
"You bet she stabbed me! Drove the tip of that dagger right into my skin!" Selena roared, rushing to her feet. When she furiously marched before the girl, she gave her a very, very heinous look. "I outta kill you right here, right now!"   
Nervous, she held her hands up over her chest, hoping to calm her.

  
"Now, now, l-let's not be uncivil here, I mean, it didn't hurt that much, did it?" her hand bolted down to her back pocket, where she whipped out a string of pearls, offering it to her. "How about I just give this to you and we call off the tension, hmm?"

  
"Oh my." sounded her other neighbor, the tall Camilla, who stood with a finger on her chin. "That looks just like my mother's pearl necklace; it's been passed down through several generations. It's a shame to say I found it missing last week... Well slap me silly; this one has the exact same scratches and dents as mine..."

  
Nina reddened even more, especially as she slapped the article on the table.

  
"You know what I just remembered? I have important affairs to tend to!" just like that, she did one of the things a thief did best: high tailed it out of the room. She leapt over chairs, rolling over and under tables, then burst out the doors which spewed her out of the mess hall, all before anyone could catch her.

  
Being one with decent endurance, she rushed down camp, her eyes wide and her face growing redder; heck, she was so full of energy she probably ran the entire mile in less than a handful of minutes. Only when she drew near to where the maze of tents stood did she begin to slow, stomping her feet on the ground tiredly. She hunched over, heaving heavily, but mustered just enough energy to scramble into her tent, where she immediately went to work.

  
She didn't know what was going on back at the mess hall, but had she known, she probably wouldn't have left in such a hurry; the rest of the army remained inside, piecing together the drama which just came about. It wasn't long, after a few people picked up some chairs and tables Nina had knocked over in her escape, Corrin clenched his fists, his shoulders knotting. He turned to the crowd, the bridge of his nose wrinkling and fury building in his blood red eyes; for all his audience knew, he may have begun morphing into a dragon.

  
"Niles!" he exclaimed, silencing the crowd once more. In an instant, eyes searched for the man in question. Little did Corrin know; he stood just a little ways behind him, jamming his pinky in an ear, groaning in distaste.

  
"What... What...? I'm right over here, do you really have to scream so loud?"

  
Angered, Corrin trudged up to the man; his lips seemed ready to release a tiger-like snarl. Standing before the man, he mustered calmer face for the sake of business.

  
"What the heck was that?" he asked harshly. "Do I need to remind you that was your daughter back there? You need to get yourself together and control her!"

  
"What? Like you think I haven't tried?" Niles shrugged, sighing. "She used to be such a reasonable girl... I don't know what's gotten into her. It's probably some sort of late rebel phase I bet."

  
"And what'll happen if she isn't taught otherwise? She'll grow up and act no different! I can't have someone this problematic in my army! Niles! Go out there, find her, and talk to her about this!"

  
Niles, again, groaned, running a hand through his white hair with a frown. He bobbed his head back in forth, soon setting his hands on his shoulders, which he began to rub in hopes of reliving himself.

  
"Like I said, she doesn't listen to a word I say. She's not like your daughter; she has no respect for me whatsoever."

  
Finally, Corrin's lips yielded a snarl as he turned around, his shoulders raised.

  
"Who does she respect then?"

  
"Hmm, how about nobody."

  
"Oh! Oh! Me! Me! She respects me!" shouted a voice, feminine and bubbly. The room paused, looking for the talker, and finally seeing her when she shoved her way out of the crowd. Exit Soleil, who stopped before her commander with a grin and a salute... Which didn't exactly come off to anybody as respectful. Upon seeing her approach him, Corrin narrowed his eyes.

  
"I thought the two of you were friends, Soleil. She won't take orders from a friend."

  
"Mmm. We're _sorta_ friends."

  
"Well, I often see you talking with her."

  
"No no, you don't get it; what you see is us in the middle of a heated debate. People who get along don't always get along, mirght?" she set her fists in her hips. "I know all her hiding places too; I can find and set her straight in a jiffy! And she'll listen to me!"

  
The room paused again, looking to Corrin with a curious gaze. He stood there, staring down at Soleil with a frown, allowing his eyes to narrow further.

  
"I can't let you go." he murmured. "We've talked about this, haven't we? You can't control yourself when you're alone with other girls."

  
The next thing they all knew, she was laughing, slapping her knee and hugging her sides. In the meantime, she shook her head violently.

  
"Ha! No no! Nina's cute and all, but I don't think she's _that_ cute." she sighed, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. "She'd put an arrow in my back anyways."

  
Corrin sighed, allowing his shoulders to sink.

  
In the end, he ultimately made a mistake, for just moment afterwards, the doors to the mess hall vomited a dashing Soleil, calling out to the name of her missing acquaintance... And the moment she found her, she found her wandering suspiciously around camp with a large sack of... Something. Whatever it was, she was awfully uptight about the contents inside.

  
"Nina!" she set a tight hand on her shoulder.

  
Nina shrieked, whipping around to give her a nice whack with the bag. The force was enough to send Soleil back, landing on the ground; for just a moment, she lay still, a wide grin on her lips. Horrified, Nina's jaw dropped as she quickly ran to the girl's side, her eyes clouding with worry.

  
"S-Soleil! You should know better than to sneak up on me like that! What're you doing here?"   
Soleil started to chuckle, shielding her face with her palms, clutching the sides of her head. Soon, her chuckles became flat-out laughs, hugging her sides again.

  
"Nina you were so cool! You were amazing! You were..." she lost her breath, struggling around on the ground as though she was dying. "Corrin told me to go talk to you both what you did to mom... So here I am!"   
Nina raised a brow, scoffing as she started to walk away.

  
"Well tell him I don't want to hear it."

  
"What you did was the best thing ever!" Soleil pounced back into her feet. "Nothing looks cuter than my mom when she's scared to death! Ha! Did you see her squirming in the ground? Kudos to you. Kudos!"   
Nina paused, her face puzzled.

  
"Corrin told you to say that?"

  
"No, of course not." she approached her, probing the sack over Nina's shoulders. "So what do you have in here?"   
The sack hit the ground, its top easing open, soon to be violated by Nina's hands. Watching with interest, Soleil listened to rustling inside; metal clinked on metal, crunching noises shook along... They were all very curious. She couldn't help but lean in with interest, even more so when Nina yanked out a trove of... Stuff. Stuff whose variety ranged from jewelry to bottles of perfume to trinkets.

  
Urgently, Nina shoved a handful of the trove into Soleil's hands.

  
"I'm about to be under a lot of fire here soon." she said stiffly. "Everything needs to go back to where I got it before everyone gets out of the mess hall and starts checking to make sure nothing of their's is missing..." she gasped, cupping her hands over her mouth. "They'll be out any minute now! And to think of how Corrin would punish me for this... Gah! I'll never see the light of day ever again!"

  
Surprised, her friend observed the pile in her arms with a look of bafflement.

  
"You know, maybe you should just how tell him how much you've stolen from everyone; I know it sounds outrageous, but sometimes the truth really feels nice to get out." she eyed the treasure again, her lips dropping into a frown; one item stuck out to her more than others. "And another thing... What business do you have with Charlotte's..."

  
"Don't ask! Don't ask! Just help me put all this stuff back where it belongs!"

  
And so, the rest of the time the mess hall of was full, two girls were scrambling about the camp grounds, loads of stuff delivered to different tents. Every once and a while, Soleil's head would rise, giving a shout to Nina:

  
"Hey! Who's is this?" she held something up. "A silver pocket watch with... Um... Some sort of cool design on the front of it."

  
"Leo's!" Nina called back from across the camp. "Make _extra_ sure that gets back or my father's going beat me into next year!"

  
"Ooh, I'd like to see that."

  
Luckily, thanks to her helping hand, Nina was able to finish just before the mess hall released a crowd of people, all full from a delicious, but eventful, dinner. The final step was so; Nina rushed over to the lake, the neighbor of the camp, and tossed the empty sack into the water. Calming, she watched as it sunk to the depths.

  
Soleil approached her then, beating one of her hands against the other tiredly.

  
"Whew! That was interesting."

  
Agreeing, Nina nodded, laying a hand on her nervous chest as she took deep, deep breaths.

  
"I thought my heart was going to stop..." she whispered, turning to her. "Thanks for your help."

  
Soleil returned her with a grin.

  
"I guess you're welcome." she said. "After all, it's the least I can do for the sight mom was back at the mess hall."

  
Relived, and having not a thing more to worry about, the two took the time to laugh beside the lake as the army soon returned to their tents. This was a good thing, seeing that Corrin happened to walk by sooner or later alongside Niles; they paused, watching the two as they smiled during their conversation.

  
"Well lookey there." Niles purred. "I guess she does listen to someone after all."

  
"Hopefully Soleil set her straight... If we're lucky, your daughter won't think about pulling off those kinds of shenanigans again..."

  
Niles sighed, crossing his arms.

  
"I've tried talking about that to her about this." he muttered. "It was the first conversation we had after you recruited her, in fact."

  
Corrin's lips dropped, shaking his head slowly.

  
"I'm sorry the two of you have problems. Someday, I'm sure, you and Nina will both be able to look back on these struggles and laugh."

  
Well, the two were considering to let Nina off the hook, that is until several started to find their long-lost items sitting inside their tents; it was after that, the two felt their eyes narrow, their teeth gritting as they stared at the laughing Nina and Soleil at the lakeside.

Their eyes narrowed.

 


	3. Nina and the Prison

It was worth mentioning that Nina had issues with authority. Now, she was reasonable when it came to people she didn't know, for whom she would try to muster the most respect she could offer. Other people, such as her father, were completely out of the question. Why was this many would wonder? Nina wasn't exactly sure why she was repulsed at the sound or sight of Niles, but she had many suspicions that stemmed from, once again, her younger days in the Deeprealms. 

  


 The child Nina from the Deeprealms adored her father and gobbled up any time he came to visit; when it was time for him to leave, she would beg and cry him into staying at least a minute more. However, as years passed her by, visits from Niles grew less and less frequent, which already wasn't frequent to begin with. 

 Soon, weekly visits became monthly. Monthly visits became every-other-monthly. Every-other-monthly visits became three-times-a-yearly. Soon, there came a point where Nina hardly saw any of her father at all, sometimes forgetting the sight of his face. This, of course was not a good thing; other children, more fortunate than her, had their families, fathers included; those kids were those she called the 'little devils'. 

 The 'little devils' poked fun at her and her orphan-like complex; often, they would ask where her father was, trying to sway her into believing she was abandoned. Hence, Nina grew up lonely, seeking comfort in the daydreams she would have when her mind started to wander. The woman Niles had left her with many years ago, a caretaker, was a woman who could not fulfill the role of a father-figure in her life, instead doing to most she could to brighten Nina's day. Needless to say, that woman did not do much to be any sort of influence in Nina, whether it be good or bad. 

 So, of course, Nina's loneliness drove her to the bad side, where she stole and stalked. 

 Nina didn't think either of what she did as something 'bad', seeing that she never really harmed anybody; she stole from the corrupt rich who cheated money out of the poor with intents to return it to whom it belonged, and those she stalked... Well, she never hurt anyone, so they were fine. 

 Her father, who was not well informed of the places Nina's interest strayed, thought nothing of needing to teach her right and wrong, assuming she was growing into a fine young lady; all it took was one abrupt crash for him to truly see her real attitude, especially towards him. All the years upon years worth anger and loneliness, all pent up inside her, was soon to rain down upon him. 

 Well, that was her plan anyways. But as of late, nothing much had really been going according to plan for Nina.

 The day following an eventful dinner and a strange Shura, Nina was in high spirits, wandering around camp in search of something interesting to come up. Perhaps, if she were lucky, she would come across her boyfriend and spend the day with him, or, if that wasn't the case, she would find a pair of dashing fellows in the middle of a heated sparring match; oh, she could see it now. Shirtless bodies, both glistening in the sunlight, ripping muscles hard at work as they swung their blades; exhausted breaths being drawn in and drawn out by a quivering, and open, mouth...

 Ooh, and if they abandoned their blades to turn their session into a wrestling match... Their hands would be all over each other, sweat mixing with sweat, their mouths breathlessly gasping for air as their tight chests collided, rubbing against one another...

 The thought drew Nina in so far she didn't notice the wall in front of her- that is until she ran into it. She groaned, nursing her nose as it stated to ooze a pinch of blood. Embarrassed, she stood alone for a while, hunched over, her eyes shut as tight as can be; in the meantime, she began to pray that no pair of eyes ever saw a sight which was that.

 If someone did see... Something had to be done about them. Something awful. Something that would never have them see anything ever again.

 "Wow. That looked like it really hurt." commented a tone, a familiar tone; the sound of it brought chills down her spine. Enter Niles, who approached her with his steed and Corrin at his side. The sight horrified Nina, causing her to take a step back, her face souring. 

 "W-What do you think hurt?" 

 "Don't pretend you didn't just run into that wall, Nina." Niles chuckled. "Stand still; Corrin and I need to talk to you." 

 Hmm. Niles was getting smart; had Corrin not been there, Nina would have left by now. Surely he foresaw such a thing and planned against it. It was time Nina upped her game as well... Just as soon as she squirmed out of this sticky situation. 

 "Oh, that's too bad; I can't stand and talk, I think I broke my nose or something. I need to get to the medical tent the soonest I can." 

 "I'm sorry, but we can't let you go." Corrin announced, his face grim. Slowly, he approached her. "Yesterday, the lot of my army couldn't help but notice some of their missing things conveniently reappeared in their tent after the incident in the mess hall..." he raised a brow as he closed in on her. "Would you happen to know anything about this strange phenomenon? Perhaps it was the work of man... Or a young woman I should say?" 

 Immediately, Nina flushed, moving her hand away from her nose as she eased backwards a pinch. 

 "Th-That's ridiculous." she scoffed. "Are you assuming it was me just because I had your sister's pearl necklace yesterday? Come on, now, it's rude to assume! I found that necklace on the ground one day; finders keepers, right?" 

 "Nina. Stop." Niles grimaced as he too approached her, his arms crossed. "I know you have this thing for stealing; trust me, I honestly believe you got it from me. In my younger days, when I was living on the streets, I couldn't get enough of that high I got when I took home something fancy without having to drop a dime. We've talked about this haven't we? Stop playing innocent and confess already; did you steal all of that stuff?" 

 Nina stood still, her face souring more with each and every second which passed; she turned her head away stubbornly, huffing.  

 "Maybe a little bit of it." 

 "And you tried to hide it by returning everything while we were away? You thought you could avoid suffering the consequences?" 

 "How rude of you to assume that of me, I'd never-"

 "Shura watched you and Soleil do the whole thing, Nina." Corrin grumbled. "He told me about it this morning; he was in a tree when he happened to notice the two of you scrambling around camp. He saw and heard everything." 

 Again, Nina's face grew worse, heat shooting up her body. She saw the look on the expression of her father... It wasn't a good look. Seldom had she seen it, but she remembered it from youth; it was a face preserved for when she was in the biggest of trouble. 

 "You saw this punishment coming from a long way, Nina." he said with a sigh, uncrossing his arms. "Be cooperative and this won't sting as much."  

 She gasped as she backed away.

 "N-No way. Sting? You're not going to spank me, are you? I'm too old to get a whipping and you know that!" 

 "Nope." Niles reached into his back pocket, where he pulled out a pair of metal cuffs, both open and ready to latch onto a pair of hands. "Thieves belong in prison; Corrin and I both agreed this would be the proper punishment for you." 

 Quickly, at the sight of those cuffs, she hid her hands behind her back. 

 "Prison?" she echoed. "But that's where war prisoners are kept! You know! Where we keep them until we've persuaded them to join us?" 

 "Prison's still a prison. Maybe you'll think really hard about what you've done during your stay." 

 And thus, the countdown began; the moment it set off, Niles and Corrin were more than happy the horse was brought along. 

 3...

 2...

 1...

 And Nina was off, sprinting away the fastest the tips of her toes could take her, her eyes wide with fear, her braids flying in the air behind her. Her boots beat against the grass as she rushed down the field, her lips releasing a slight shriek. 

 In the wake of her dash, Niles and Corrin stood side by side, sighing in disapproval. Slowly, Niles shook his head. 

 "Told you she would run." he muttered before leaping onto the back of his steed. In just a moment's worth after, he beckoned the beast to rush forth, leaving Corrin behind to watch. It didn't take long to gain in Nina's tail; she was an excellent runner, but she was nowhere near as fast as a conditioned steed. Upon noticing her father catch up to her, she grit her teeth as she changed the direction of her sprint, heading straight for camp. 

 She rushed through the maze of tents, slowing her pursuer behind her with the traffic and obstacles of the crowded camp; pleased with herself, she cackled beneath her tiring breath, continuing to distance herself from her hindered father. 

 Where was she going? She wasn't sure, but she knew wherever it was, she would have to get far from the camp... Perhaps even leave the army. It would be dangerous to put herself out there where she was left to the mercy of the wilderness without a second pair of eyes to watch her six... But heck was it better than going to prison.

 Soon, she ran out of camp and was back in the terrain that offered her no advantages; she had to be fast or else her father was easily going to catch back up to her. Her feet quickened, costing her much more breath; so much adrenaline pumped through her veins for her to possibly notice the change in exhaustion. 

 The adrenaline made it to where she didn't notice a lot of things, especially the weighted net her father loaded into his bow behind her. Amongst the galloping of hooves on bare ground, he aimed his weapon to the sky, tugged back, then released, watching as the net flew. It soared across the field, opening, its weights spreading wide as it plummeted to the ground. 

 It was a hole in one, for when it hit the ground, a tangled daughter lay in its clutches, struggling to break free. She wrestled, taking some of the rope in her mouth in hopes of chewing her way out. When she noticed the sound of hooves growing closer, she snarled. 

 "Hey! Get back!" she said, squirming furiously. "You lousy son of a-" 

 "Lookey what we have here." Niles grinned maniacally as he retired his bow. He slid off the back of his horse, his boots thumping against the ground; there, he squatted next to her, watching as she continued to struggle. "Seems I've caught myself some sticky fingers. Better luck next time." 

 And that's how Nina ended up behind the metal bars of a prison cell, all alone, her eyes wide with shock. On the opposite side, Niles stood next to Corrin, his arms crossed as he observed their newly-obtained prisoner. With a sigh, he allowed his shoulders to sink.  

 "Geez, Nina." he said lowly, looking away. "Haven't I told you? I've never wanted this for you, not in a million years; this is where the choices you've made have landed your sorry rump." 

 Inside, hiding in the shadow of the corner, Nina snapped her head away with a grimace. 

 "Easy coming from you, the one who never got caught his youth." she grumbled. "Why don't you come sit in here with me so we can both know how it feels." Niles shook his head slowly. 

 "I've had my days of transformation. It's time you had yours." with that he turned to Corrin, shrugged, then began to walk away. "Thanks for sparing another cell for her; I'll decide when's a good time to let her out later." 

 Side by side, the two men abandoned the cell, prowling down the empty hall of cobblestone before they heard a banging behind them; it sent a metallic ring echoing into the darkness, begging them to stop. Complying, they turned around curiously, opening their ears to listen to an angered shout which followed. 

 "Yeah, go on, father! Stick me someplace and leave! That sounds just like you!" the voice roared; her hands, gripping the bars of her cell, began to shake rapidly. "I bet you won't visit me here either! Leave me to rot like you did in the Deeprealms!"

 The shouts were obviously bait, and Niles was smart enough to see it as such; funny enough, he almost couldn't resist taking it. However, Corrin was surprised to see his integrity as he continued to walk on, his shoulders stiff; something in his blood red eyes seemed to want to ask him if he should reconsider leaving so soon. In the end, however, his lips remained sealed as they departed from the prison.

  



	4. Nina and the Gap

Nina, as hinted before, was a lonely girl, whether she liked to admit it or not. Sometimes, she would trick herself into believing she wasn't all by herself, often by means of daydreaming or putting on those strange puppet plays when nobody was watching... In her tiny cell, there really wasn't much to use to put on a show, neither were there any other prisoners near by to chat with. In the end, perhaps even if there was company there with her, they wouldn't have been interested in talking, seeing that they were too angry at being captured and forced out of their homeland.

  
So, Nina spent her days in the darkness of the prison, whistling to herself and allowing her mind to wander places; her daydreams weren't as juicy when they had no inspiration material from the outside, and older scenarios of hers no longer got her heart racing as much as they had when they were fresh. So, this meant Nina had no choice but to use her imagination.

  
Oh no.

  
'Once, long ago, in a kingdom whose name was forgotten... Um... No. It was a kingdom called Flareshire. Yeah. Okay, so once, long ago, in a kingdom whose name was Flareshire, there lived a... Uh... A mercenary. Yeah, a mercenary. Mr. Mercenary was so poorly treated in his hometown, so much so that everyone wanted him thrown into prison! Mr. Mercenary was so lonely, his heart nearly torn apart by the tidal waves of a negligent father and mother... When suddenly, a handsome... Um... Axeman strode into his life when he was lost in the forest one day.

  
_'Why hello there, Mr. Mercenary, you seem lost today._

_  
'Oh yes! Humble axeman, I've found myself lost here in this wretched forest where none can find me!_

_  
'Fret not, smooth-skinned Mr. Mercenary, I have a log cabin not too far from here; grab my hand, for I shall take you there and allow you to stay the night._

_  
'Oh! Mr. Axeman, your hands are so strong from all the year's worth of work! Please, don't ever let go and leave me to die in this inescapable forest!_

_  
'I won't let go, Mr. Mercenary, so long as you hang on.'_

  
Before long, Nina realized she took very well to using her imagination to its full potential. She spent hours upon hours, a grin cracked on her face, drool threatening to stream out of her mouth. As a matter of fact, she was so engrossed in her daydream she almost didn't catch the figure that watched towards her cell. It was a boy, she came to discover, a boy missing half his face to a lock of smooth hair. He set down what he brought with him: an easel, a canvas, a box of paints and brushes, and a jar of water.   
Immediately, her eyes brightened as she abandoned the daydream; she pounced from the darkness, pressing against the bars which confined her. She grinned widely.

  
"Shigure!" 

Shigure it was indeed; he gave her a polite smile as he approached her, reaching through a gap to pat her head.

  
"Hello, my captured Nina." he chuckled. "At last, I give you my first visit."

  
"Try _the_ first visit." Nina sighed. "I haven't seen anybody for days! Thank God you remembered me!"

  
Shigure, gentle, closed his eyes, smiling sweetly; had he been a cat, he would have purred.

  
"Now, now; what sort of boyfriend would I be if I never payed you audience at all?" it was with that, he strode back over to his canvas, preparing his paints. "I hope you do not mind, but I had to bring my things along with me; my Nina, the thief, captured! She sits in her cell of despair, her eyes full of defeat... Yes! I love it! The emotion, the drama, the atmosphere- it's all nothing short of perfection! I simply must paint it onto a canvas."

  
Yes, it was true; Shigure was the fabled boyfriend of Nina. Now, many thought her to be bluffing when she said she had a boyfriend (take Shura for instance), but that was simply not the case. What especially didn't help was the fact that she always neglected to tell exactly _who_ her boyfriend was when people asked. Shigure was rather puzzled himself when Nina requested that their relationship be private; she said something about it being... _Clandestine_... Or whatever. With no argument to pay in response, he went ahead and complied, laughing with a shrug.

  
The only thing was... Shigure and Nina never really acted like lovers; they hadn't hugged, nor held hands, nor kissed, nor... Not anything really. Maybe once or twice he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, but that was only as a thank-you for being a model for his most recent painting.

  
In short, Shigure seemed to only be a boy friend than an actual boyfriend. Was Nina disappointed? Slightly. But she knew there was some sort of reason why their relationship was like this... Something was hindering any progression.

  
Until she found out what it was, she would have to keep sitting still, listening to brush strokes fill the echoes of silence. Once again, he was deeply engrossed in his work, his careful eye darting up to her every now and then before quickly returning to the piece. The quiet was boring,mNina came to think, so it wasn't long before she began to wonder why nothing has happened.

  
But, as soon as she began to question, Shigure cleared his throat, and his voice, smooth as honey, sounded.

  
"Nina." he said. "Allow me to straighten things... You _were_ put in here for stealing, am I correct?" she sucked her lips into her mouth before offering a reluctant nod. "Hear now, if you give in to such fiendish habits, it would do me well to stop calling you dear; our secrecy can already put us in disputable places, but having secrecy with a woman that is a criminal? I'm sorry, but mother has taught me better, and I would hate to disappoint her."

  
Immediately, doom spread across Nina's face.

  
"W-Wait... You're not saying we should break up... A-Are you?"

  
"If you continue with your ugly habits, I fear so." he brought the end of his paint brush to his lips, nibbling softly on its wood. "Surely you understand why."

  
The next thing he knew, she had broken her pose to wham herself against the bars of her cell, clinging to them as though they were the only things keeping her alive. When he spied upon her face, he would see a pair of very wide eyes.

  
"Y-You can't leave me! N-Not now you can't! What about my modeling? Who else will model for you?"

  
"Nature holds quite a bundle of beauty, I should say; since I decided that I would paint no other besides you, I will move on to landscapes and animals." he cocked his head to the side. "You speak with such passion; if you don't want us to split so badly, all you have to do is quit with your stealing and... Eh... Poking people with knives."

  
"Oh, but Shigure, you don't understand! I _must_ steal! I must steal for the sake of the needy! Those rich royals shouldn't just sit and watch as their lower subjects starve; someone has to do something about them and give them a taste of poverty!"   
A pause broke between the two of them; it was a cold pause, Shigure's expression hardening.

  
"Don't forget that my mother happens to be of the Royal Nohrian Family, Nina. When you speak of nobles, you speak of she and I."

  
She felt her heart stop for three solid seconds, turning her face blue with worry; she started to laugh before fanning her hand out towards him as she shook her head furiously.

  
"Ha! Haven't you forgotten about how much of a joker I am? Go ask Corrin, he'll tell you all about my tendency to say things I don't mean... Heh. Of course I didn't mean that; of course not all royals are selfish little pricks that pinch every last dime from the pockets of the poor... Imagine how ridiculous that'd be if I actually meant that! Totally didn't mean that! Ha!"

  
The more she went on, the more she saw his eyebrows sink, his frown becoming sterner. Soon, he began to make motions which threatened to begin packing up his things, including a canvas with an unfinished painting. As his movements became more less and less bluff-like, her fake laughter died down, her face dropping into a face of horror; she couldn't hold back a gasp.

  
"I never bothered to have our relationship progress any further because I knew something about you was off." he murmured, uncollapsing his easel. "Until you have learned to control both your tongue and your fingers, I shall leave you alone."   
Again, she whammed against bars.

  
"H-Hang on! Wait a second! You can't leave me here a-all by myself!" she tried to shove her head between a pair of the bars, succeeding when she turned it just a little ways to the side; there, at a better angle, she watched as the loaded Shigure slowly made his way down the hall, carrying his things along with him. "P-Please don't leave; it gets lonely in here! I-I don't like being lonely, you know? Nobody else visits m-me- not even my own father or my mother! C-Come on!"

  
But just like that, he was gone, leaving the silence in his wake. Defeated, Nina sighed, then started to draw her head back into her cell... Except when she pulled back, her head wouldn't go any further than the bars behind her would let her. She gasped, heat traveling up her body as she began to struggle, tugging with all her might to free herself. She turned, she pulled, she held her breath...

  
Well, she was just plain stuck.

 


	5. Nina and Her Mouth

Nina was an honest person, often meaning no harm. Sometimes, things would just bubble up in her head, and for some reason, something inside her just begged for those things to be set free for the world to hear. Most people would just say she wanted the attention that came with making some very bold claims, but she, on the other hand, would argue that she just wanted people to be aware of how some eyes perceived them, no rudeness intended (unless it was blatantly obvious).

It became a weekly thing for Nina to try to chat up whoever had prison shift. Sometimes, she ended up making mistakes she could have easily avoided had she just kept her big fat mouth shut when feeding time came. This was especially so with her head stuck between those bars, open, defenseless, and vulnerable... Vulnerable to... Boots.

  
First up, there came Effie, who walked down the halls with the metal of her armor clinking loudly; Nina knew who it was the moment she heard her walk inside the prison. In her hands was of a tray of grub, nothing special, but valuable in the eyes of one who could no longer eat whenever she pleased.

  
"Well, here you are." Effie sighed, placing the tray on the ground before the cell. "Lots of protein in this I hope; you can't build strong muscles if you don't get your protein."

  
The conversation should have been simple; a simple 'here you go' and a humble response of 'thanks for bringing this to me'...  
But along came Nina's mouth.

  
"Thanks." she looked up to the woman before reaching her hands through the bars to touch her meal. "So um... You're one of Elise's retainers, right?"

  
"That's _Lady_ Elise to you."

  
"Right; you're _Lady_ Elise's retainer. It sure is a good thing she has you to protect you. With a voice like yours shouting at me, I'd be horrified to be your foe."

  
She saw Effie flinch.

  
"I'm sorry? My... Voice?"

  
"Yeah. Your voice."

  
"What about my voice?"

  
"You know... You sound like a boy going through puberty, and gosh is that pretty deep for a woman if you ask me."

  
The moment Effie stopped talking to her, Nina realized she had obviously said something wrong. This was confirmed when the woman leaned over, took the tray back in her hands, then rose back up; the food had not even been touched, to Nina's dismay, and no matter how long or how desperately she begged, she could not get it back.

  
"You're lucky I'm gentle with my allies."

  
And with that, Effie walked away, taking Nina's meal along with her.

  
The next week, down the hall came Arthur; she knew it was Arthur before she even saw him, seeing that his voice, trembling with might, rang down the cobblestone hall.

  
"At last, criminals, you all see justice! Taste the taste of goodness and see where your fiendish crimes deliver you! I have brought your meal of justice here along with me, and justice is best served cold."

  
The tray landed before her, and whatever was inside of it splattered on her face. Normally, Nina wouldn't have squirmed quite as much, but she didn't know what had splattered on her face was (and it was cold). So, she began to struggle, holding back a gag.

  
"Gah! What is this? Get it off! Get it off!"

  
"That, fiend, is my great grandmother's secret oatmeal recipe; I cooked it specially for the army this morning! Lucky you; there happened to be some left or else you would have gone hungry! Mercy knows no bounds, for it sees far past the muck and grime of a criminal's heart."

  
Her hands reached through the bars again, bringing themselves to her face, still stuck between the gate. There, she angrily wiped the _"oatmeal"_ away.

  
"You cooked this?" she inquired. "And people ate it this morning?"

  
"Quite so! It was a very popular dish. Why, I lost count of the several requests for seconds!"

  
Nina became still, looking up to the man, studying his muscular frame, his square chin, and his short golden hair; before long, she anchored a brow.

  
"W-Wow... I'm impressed. I never thought you a cook, Arthur. Up until now I always thought you were only good for wearing dorky costumes and being poked fun at... All in the name of justice!" she cracked a grin that attempted to be friendly.

  
Like Effie, however, Arthur stopped talking to her, giving her a face of disgust. Slowly, his expression dropped, his hands, once balled against his hips, slid down and slapped against his toned thighs. He sighed before turning around.

  
"Don't you listen to her, Arthur; she's a criminal, and criminals do nothing but harm, even to the things intangible... Like your ego for example." he began to walk away. "Lord Corrin will hear of this, young lady!"

  
Up next for prison duty was Selena...

  
...Nina was smart enough to keep her mouth shut when Selena brought her dinner.

  
After Selena came Soleil, who she was surprised to see walking down the hall of cobblestone with her meal in hand. Boy was Nina in for it when Soleil finally caught eye of her, for quickly afterwards, a sly grin spread across her lips.

  
"Oh, hi Nina. I've been wondering where you went; here all this time I thought you'd run away or something." she chuckled. "You must be who this food was meant for... But geez, it looks like your stuck and there's no way of getting it..."

  
Nina frowned before beginning to struggle again, trying to pull her head back into her cell.

  
"Shut your mouth." she grumbled. "We're friends, aren't we? How about you go fetch me those keys over there and bust me out of here. You're the one who said the truth feels good, right? Well I have to say that doesn't even _lick_ truth!"

  
She knew something bad was going to go down when she heard Soleil laugh again.

  
"You know, boy lover, you're really in no position to be calling the shots. I mean, just look at you with your head stuck between those bars! You look like a piece of _art_!" she giggled. "Since I've got your food here, and I can easily do other things with it. I guess you have to do whatever I say so that you don't starve... Miright?" 

"Some friend you are!" Nina hissed. "What do you want?"

  
"I want you to admit that I was right all along: boys're disgusting!"

  
"No way!" she began to thrash, unable to escape. "Have you ever been close to a chiseled boy, his chest on display for the world to see? Or the purity of the friendship between two of them? The undying commitment that never stays angry or holds grudges? How can you call that disgusting?"

  
Soleil continued to grin, her eyes narrowing; at last, she turned around, the tray in her hands the entire time, before she slowly made her way back up the hall.

  
"Aw... What a shame... I guess there'll be no lunch in your belly today. Maybe you'll have better luck at dinner."

  
And lastly, there came Charlotte's shift...

  
Charlotte came down the hall one day, a tray in her hand, humming a song to herself. She didn't announce anything to Nina, but instead approached her quietly, set the tray in front of the cell, then cleared her throat.

  
"There you go. Eat up." she said simply.

  
"Thanks." Nina had learned to take her food the quickest she could, then shove what she could in her mouth. In the meantime, as she chewed on... Something... She looked up to the woman, observing her light golden hair, which cascaded down her back, nearing her tailbone. It went without arguing that Charlotte had very pretty hair and a very pretty form...

Everybody could see that form of hers; such caused a question to bubble in that little head of Nina's, and she was a fool to humor it.

  
"So, um... Miss Charlotte?"

  
She watched Charlotte lean over, her face nearing hers.

  
"Yes?"

  
"I was wondering... Have you ever heard of clothes before? How do you survive winter like that?"

  
Quickly afterwards, Charlotte's face contorted, her face turning beet red.

  
"Whaddya mean do I know what clothes are?" she boomed. "Does it not look like I'm wearing some right now? What kind of question is that?"

  
Nina, cowering, could not free herself to get away from the angered Charlotte. Instead, she held her hands up as if to ask for her to calm.

It didn't work.

  
"Well, you're not really wearing all that much... If you ask me, it kinda makes you look like a-"

  
The toe of Charlotte's boot met her face before she could finish. It was a kick so powerful she could have sworn she felt her nose break! It was a kick so powerful blood gushed out of her nostrils before the her foot even made contact! It was a kick so powerful it set her head free of its barred prison, sending her flying back into her cell!

  
Nina skidded across the ground, her arms and braids alike spread over a few strands of hay from the bedding in the corner. She moaned horrifically, reluctant to lift even a finger as she slowly curled into a ball, cupping her hands over her nose.  
"I'm not taking that sort of crap from you!" Charlotte boomed before kicking the tray of lunch. "Why don't you just starve in this cell? Go on and die!" having said everything, Charlotte stormed out of the prison, leaving Nina behind with what she was sure was a broken nose.


	6. Nina and Her Father

Nina, though she may not look it, was a sensitive person with tender feelings... Feelings that were easily bruised. Of course, nobody has ever seen those sensitive feelings in action since she dealt with them in private (mostly in her secret hiding places). Only once had Corrin walked in on her by sheer accident as she was weeping, and even so, since she was good at getting out of sticky situations, she somehow convinced him she was trying to get a bug out of her eye... In a dark room... Surrounded by tissues...

  
So, as anybody would figure, a lonely and sensitive Nina was a deadly combination, especially in a gloomy place such as a dank prison. She'd been that darn cell for who knows how long, laying bored on the bed of hay in the corner. Luckily, she had managed to scavenge a small pebble on the floor; with it and a fistful of hay, she was able to put on a puppet show.

  
"Mr. Rock was a kind, but quiet soul; yes, he seems like the type. He may seem tough on the outside, but in all actuality, he was actually very fragile on the inside, much unlike his friend, Mr. Vase, who is always crying about something. Mr. Hay was fragile too, but he was very good at getting over things because he just get right back into shape! Mr. Rock was very jealous of Mr. Hay for being so laid back, and Mr. Hay was well aware of Mr. Rock's schemes. Mr. Hay had lots he wanted to discuss with Mr. Rock. The unfortunate thing was the fact that while Mr. Hay was lax and easy-going, he was also very shy and not too brave. Will Mr. Hay ever be able to convey his thoughts to the jealous Mr. Rock? Ooh, this is getting juicy..."

  
"I've heard better stories."

  
With a screech, as well as having her heart leap out of her throat, Nina whipped around to find her dinner behind her; holding it was none other than her father, Niles. Almost immediately, upon laying eyes on his white hair and dark eye-patch, she frowned, then turned her back to him again.

  
"Oh, there you are father." she grumbled, crossing her arms. "It's about time you decided to give your own daughter a visit. How long has it been? Four weeks?"

  
Niles, after giving the tray of food a quick glance, shrugged his shoulders.

  
"I don't know." he said. "I figured you were the one scraping tallies on the wall."

  
"Sure, like I have anything to do that with."

  
"Don't see why you can't just use Mr. Rock the Jealous over there."

  
A flush spread across her face as her eyes darted down to the rock in her hand; it was a decent sized rock that would probably hurt if she threw it at someone. She was too embarrassed to plan anything around that, so she instead chucked it to the other side of the cell.

  
"What do you want, father? Come to harass me?"

  
"No. I just came to deliver your supper since the calendar has my shift written on this week." Niles replied, starting to slide the meal inside through the gap in the bars. "Better eat up while it's still lukewarm."

  
Nina gasped suddenly whirling around again; her jaw dropped.

  
"Wait... You only came here because it's your prison shift?" she pounced onto her feet, balling up her fists. "Not because you wanted to see me?"

 

Again, Niles shrugged, closing his only good eye.

  
"Sorry, Nina, I've been really busy lately. Haven't had much leisure time lately."

  
"That's the exact same crap you gave me in the Deeprealms!" she boomed. "What the hell have you been doing that makes you so busy all the time?"

  
"Mmm... Work."

  
"What kind of work? Corrin is the freaking leader of this army and has the time to entertain guests at his house!" she gripped her bars tensely, looking up to her father with an angered stare. "I'm sick of your crap, hardly visiting me and then getting mad when I don't act the way you want me to! If you don't like me, all you have to do is say it instead of making me guess all the time, father!"

  
She heard Niles chuckle, keeping his arms crossed coolly.

  
"Aw... Having daddy problems, Nina?"

  
"How about you answer that for yourself, blockhead; I've left enough clues."

  
"Alright, you win." he sighed. "I've never cared about you at all, only liked you when you were still a small child that was ready to listen and obey. The moment I saw you shifting into a young woman with a mind of her own, I was really turned off about having you. Heck, I even considered just leaving you in the Deeprealms all by yourself like an orphan." he shrugged. "There's your truth. Sorry. At least you get to stop wondering now."

  
Silence followed, his daughter giving him a stare that was... Foreign. It was a mix between shock and despair. It was a look he had never seen on her face too many times, the one time probably being when she saw him for the first time in a long while when she led a burglary in the estate of a corrupt rich man. It took him by surprise.

  
"Y... You're not joking?"

  
"Nope."

  
She stood still just a moment longer, pulling her weight off the bars before her; without a single word more, her feet slowly took her away, retreating into the darkness of the cell where he could no longer see her. He lingered anyway, softening his breath so that he may listen to even the slightest of sounds.

  
He heard a sniffle.

  
"Fine then." she said, hoarse. "Go. Don't waste your time... Being with someone... You don't... Like..."

  
What followed was a sound he had not heard in a long while; the sounds of weeping. She went on quietly, disregarding his presence completely. Surprised, Niles lingered, continuing to listen...and in his chest, he felt his heart sink.. He heaved a sigh while hanging his head.

  
Slowly, his hand reached behind him to take a ring of keys from his back pocket. A jingle echoed down the hall as he took them out, but the sound, to his surprise, did not seem to affect the weeping Nina, who remained in the dark. He applied the keys to the door of bars, which he gently slid open to allow himself inside the cell. As he drew closer into the dark, he could make out shapes much easier than he could from the outside; he found her there, squatting on the floor, her head pressed against a wall, her hands cupped over her face.

  
He stood over her, his hands stiff to his sides as he gazed down at her form; the frown in his face spread wider.

  
"You don't hate me after all." she continued to weep softly, ignoring him. He sighed. "Look, Nina... If it helps, it's not easy for me to say this... But you have every right to hate me. I made a mistake not being a part of your life while you were in the Deeprealms. I didn't visit you nearly as much as the others visited their children... For that, I feel I've done a horrible job as a father. I regret not using my free time to come see you... I regret thinking that you were fine out there with your caretaker... I regret forgetting that time passes faster in the Deeprealms than it does here." he looked to the side, his gaze somber. "I feel like I've missed so much of your life, Nina... I wasn't there when you took your first steps or said your first words. What I'd give to try again with you, to go back and give you more of my time... I'll understand if you don't believe me, seeing that my actions don't testify to my words, but... I love you, Nina. I'd give up everything to keep you safe, and I want to right my wrongs."

  
She remained still for a long time, sniffling every other minute. The longer Niles remained, the more he wondered if no response would come from her... Perhaps his words were too late. Suddenly, though, she rose, her hands wiping away tears in her face, sounding with on long, and loud, sniffle.

  
"So." she began, her voice cracking. "Now you finally decide to spend time with me... When it's convenient for you..." she turned around, leaping into his arms. She buried her face in his chest, embracing him tightly; she wept again, muffling her cries in his shirt. "I hate you so much, father. You're the absolute worst."

  
Though it was slight, a smile tugged at the corner of Niles' lips as he slowly returned the gesture, planting his lips gently on the crown of her head.

  
"I sure am... Aren't I..."

 


	7. Nina and Percy

If it wasn't at least slightly evident by now, Nina's soul was a charitable one, even though she often came off to others as rude and pushy. This, as one would have guessed far before it was revealed, was also something she had the Deeprealms to thank for.

  
Nina had seen poverty, and definitely not a mild case. Just a town over from where she was raised, there was a slum, a slum that couldn't even qualify as a village. Five people families lived in single room shacks, small shirts looked baggy on full grown men, and she nearly tripped over a bunch of kids because she couldn't see them; they were just as dirty as the ground, blending in like a chameleon.

  
She just so happened to wander there one day, exploring outside of her boundaries because of a rebellion stage. The things she saw drowned her heart, so cheery before setting foot inside. Afterwards, as if a switch had been flicked, Nina felt passion ignite for those people, and worked to help any who reminded her of them.

  
Oh, but of course, if Nina stole, she was the villain! Always the villain, that girl, and terribly misunderstood! All those people, she tries to explain her just motives, but they just won't listen! Those people! They're all the true villains... At least that's how she wanted to portray herself.

  
Tonight was the first night Nina was free from her dank prison, and boy did she soak in the air with a smile. At last, sweet freedom was hers once again to embrace; she could go hit the bath-house, she could head out to town, she could talk to people, she could sharpen her archery prowess...

  
...And she could also go watch some cute guys. Yeah. She could do that too...

  
But, of course, things have yet to go Nina's way.

  
Just as she was about to go off and do her Nina-business, which led her to a suspiciously dark corner of the castle, the tip of a finger played a little dance on the back of her neck.

  
Now, Nina was a calm, cool, and collected girl; that was probably the biggest factor that let her get away with all that she could get away with. In the battlefield, even when surrounded by a barrage of foes, she would simply flick her braids out of the way and reach into her quiver to fish out an arrow like a champ.

  
The element of surprise, though, was one of her weaknesses.

  
She whirled around, flailing her arms protectively.

  
"What! What do you want! Can't you see I'm busy for the love of-" she froze when her eyes lay upon her visitor. It was familiar; tan skin, snow white hair, an intimidating patch over an eye, a smug expression plastered on the face.

  
Yep. It was Niles again.

  
"Hello, beloved daughter of mine." he greeted, a crooked smirk pulling at the end of his lips. She returned his words by rolling her eyes and planting her fists atop her hips roughly.

  
"Oh, it's you, father. What do you want?"

  
"Whoa, that's no way to say hello to the man that got your mother-"

  
"I don't want to hear the rest of that." her frown arched. "Do you need something?"

  
That crooked smirk became a full fledged smile, wicked just as it was smooth. His only good eye narrowed.

  
"How about we try this again?" he proposed. Without her word of approval- or disapproval- he crossed his arms. "Hello, beloved daughter of mine."

  
Nina, in response, rolled her eyes again.

  
"I don't have the time for this."

  
"No, no, Nina; this is where you say, 'hello yourself, beloved father.'"

  
She stood still for a moment, staring the man down before squinting and releasing a huff.

  
"Hello yourself, father."

  
"You forgot the-"

  
"I know what I forgot. Can you tell me what you want now?"

  
The wicked smile disappeared, slithering back into its hole; in its place was a subtle frown, a pinch more serious than its former.

  
"Well, I came to tell you that dinner's going to be in about an hour. So, since we need to work on our father-daughter time, I'd like for you to come sit and eat with me."

  
Almost immediately, red burst onto her face, painting her into a tomato. Her expression wasn't quite so angry anymore; as a matter of fact, it was far from it. Not the opposite... But it wasn't close either. She took a step back, throwing her hands over her chest as if she wished to rip out her heart and force it to hush, and allowed her eyes to widen.

  
"Eat? With you?"

  
He laughed darkly.

  
"You heard me right."

 

"W-Where'll you be sitting?"

  
"Where I always do."

  
"But father! You sit where all the men are!"

  
"I'm a man, Nina."

  
"I can't sit where all the men are! Do you have any idea what might happen if I sit where all the men are? I'll be surrounded by them! I-I can't be surrounded by men! My mind'll start wandering to places it really shouldn't go, like..." she slowed her speech, her face deepening its blush. "Like if... If Silas and Corrin, two childhood friends, are talking to one another... Oh, I can see it now... They're sitting side by side, their shoulders nearly brushing against one another as their forks dance around their plates..."

  
Niles frowned then, watching her eyes wander other places, places besides him. He let her ramble on for a little while before bringing his fingers to her face; a few snaps did the trick, pulling her back into reality.

  
"Still going through that boy phase, aren't you?"

  
Awakened from her bout, Nina's expression returned to grimness, and her eyes stared him down bitterly.

  
"If that's what you want to call it, I guess so. Maybe if you had spent more time with me, you'd be able to answer that for yourself."

  
"Ah, ah, ah." Niles held up a finger, silencing her. "You can't be mad at me for that forever, Nina. I'm trying to get you to spend time with me right now. If you decline my offer, you'll have no one to be blame but yourself. So, what'll it be?"

  
"Who said I was going to be mad at you for that forever? I think I can still be angry about it now if I wanted; I'm completely justified. Again, maybe if you had spent more time with me, you'd have a good idea as to how I would answer that and why."  
Niles raised a brow, almost taken back.

  
"Oh? It's almost starting to sound like you're telling me no..."

  
"Of course I'm saying no!" she replied. "I'd die if I sat over there with you; aren't you aware that I can't talk to a single one of those guys? What'll I do if one of them asks me a question? Or even worse- tries to start a conversation?"

  
"I don't know; you seemed to get along with Azura's son awfully well last time I checked, so it does sound like you can speak to at least one of them..."

  
She was petrified all of a sudden, her face frozen in a mixture between fear and grief; her mouth gaped just a little bit in hesitation.

  
"Shigure? You can't pay me enough to talk to Shigure! He's the last person I'd want to look at over there!"

  
Niles was still for a little while before unwinding his arms. In the meantime, he released a heavy sigh, then commenced to strut away. He peered over his shoulder, looking at her, noticing that she was watching back.

  
"Fine then. Do what you want." he muttered apathetically. "You were the one who always got mad at me for not spending time with you. Can't say I didn't try now." and with that said, he was off, making his way to the mess hall. Even when his gaze was taken off of her, Nina watched him all the way through, her frown deepening with each passing moment.

  
However, though, a few minutes into dinner, Niles would be surprised to have a plate plop next to his seat at the table. After scooting a chair back, she sat down, her shoulders stiff.

  
She knew his eyes were on her the whole time, but never did she dare to return his gaze; instead, she just kept her eyes on her plate, staring at the boiled cabbage she probably wasn't going to enjoy. It was probably a good thing Nina didn't look at him, for the sight of his condescending smirk may have driven her into a state of fury.

  
"Don't get the wrong idea." she muttered. "There weren't any chairs left on the other side of the hall."

  
"Fine by me." he purred. "Guess that means you have to spend time with your kinky old man."

  
She shivered.

  
"You're disgusting."

  
With her saying such, the attention of their neighbors was evoked; one of a certain blonde haired boy that looked up from his supper. He set his fork down, giving them a slight smile before clearing his throat.

  
"Now, now; your father may be crude, but by no means is he not honorable. He's saved my hide on several accounts being the faithful retainer that he is. He deserves a little more respect than that, don't you think?"

  
Nina flushed; it was, of course, Leo that sat across from them. He was a rather delicate looking boy, one who shies from handling fights physically. After all, he mostly used tomes instead of weapons; it made sense for him to fight in such a style with a physique such as his... So small in frame, comparable to a woman's.

  
Uh oh. Here comes the thoughts. The thoughts that would make drool ooze from the corner of her lips and paint her face crimson. No, no, no. Not here. Not at the dinner table. Not about the one that her father worked for- she'd never hear the end of it if she lost control of herself!

  
She needed a distraction. She needed to swat those thoughts away as though they were flies swirling around the only food she's had in weeks. Talking ought to do the trick. Yeah.

  
Except the moment she opened her mouth, she was far too set on being distracted than remembering how bad she was at talking to men.

  
"You don't know anything about my father and I." she huffed. "When you're not looking, he probably makes you look awful."  
Though Niles' skin was golden, a flush became evident.

  
"Nina!" he scolded. "That's not how you talk to Lord Leo!" quickly, he turned back to the boy, frowning. "My Lord... Don't mind her. She doesn't know what she's saying."

  
Oops. Sounds like she was being rude again. This might be something else she had to crawl out of, hopefully retaining every body part. Maybe it was best she kept quiet henceforth; after all, whenever she bothered to open that mouth of hers, something bad was bound to spill out on accident.

  
Oh, Nina, always the victim...

  
A good while had passed, and the mess hall was still full of chatter. The kitchen staff had begun going around picking up plates, but through out the whole time, Nina kept her head down, doing what she did best; aimlessly pushing her cabbage around with her fork as she listened to everything around her.

  
There was so much good stuff around here. So much inspiration. So much material to whet her imagination. She couldn't help but feel her face stay fiery hot through the entire meal. Surprisingly, even though Niles invited her to sit with him so that he could spend time with her, there wasn't much exchanged the two of them; he was too busy talking to his partner, Odin, and Leo. What was it about? Nina wasn't sure; she tuned out a long time ago when the conversation failed to grasp her interest.  
Now, what did capture her interest was the dialogue behind her between two boys; when she occasionally peeked over her shoulder, she would discover the two to be Laslow and Kaze. Ah, yes, those two went nicely together. Laslow's voice was mighty attractive with that thick, smooth accent of his, she had to admit, and Kaze wasn't popular with women for no reason. They sure were acting all buddy-buddy too...

  
Her mind was about to plunge elsewhere, but something of interest caught her eye, causing her to lift her head just a little higher than before. It was a little kid walking by the table, passing Odin and Leo's backs; his face was decorated by a silly looking mask, his shoulders adorned with a cape... But the most eye catching of all was his expression. It was real down, tears building in his eyes as he hung his face low and kept his back hunched. He passed quickly, scurrying his way to the corner of the hall.

  
Nina, being the omniscient of people's business, knew the boy's name to be Percy. They'd talked a few times; once, he returned her notebook when she had lost it, but unfortunately, her attempts to thank him came out rather rudely. She hadn't spoke to him much ever since; she assumed she scared him away. If she had to be honest, she couldn't find any will within her to be angry at him for that.

  
So, having nothing better to do, Nina set her fork down over her abandoned cabbage and pushed her seat back as she stood. This attracted the attention of Niles, who looked up at her.

  
"Going somewhere?"

  
"I'll be back." she answered promptly before walking away. Carefully, she weaved through the crowd of men and tables, where she felt small; once, when she passed by one table in particular, her eyes met with Shigure's. Needless to say, that contact didn't remain for long, seeing that she quickly yanked her face away as though she wore reigns.

  
She followed Percy to the corner of the room, where he sat alone, his face buried in his knees and buried behind the crowd standing around him. When she arrived, her ears caught the steady sniffles of weeping, even in the loudness of all the chatter surrounding them. For just a moment, she stood still, looking down at him, unsure of what to do. Chances were, if she butt in, she would most likely end up making matters worse, seeing what happened the last time they spoke.

  
Even so, with those unfavorable odds, Nina couldn't bring herself to leave the poor kid alone; such was the reason why she brought the tip of her boot to his shin, tapping it lightly.

  
"Hey." she called down to him, drawing his face up. It was soaked with tears, his bottom lip quivering. "What's got you all worked up?"

  
"Oh... Hi, Nina." she was surprised he remembered her name. "I'm not doing so well right now... Pop's been sick for about a week and I haven't been able to go see him. Geez, I'm so worried for ol' pop; the last time I saw him, he was down with a really bad fever and could hardly stay awake."

  
Percy's dad... Arthur. He was sick? After being in a stupid prison cell for so long, Nina really felt out of the loop. Tomorrow she had to get up and at 'em with her spying so she could know what was happening again.

  
"Mmm. Sorry to hear that, Percy." wow. That actually sounded pretty nice of her for a change. Figuring she was on a role, she squat down, meeting him eye-level. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

  
"Not really, Nina. Thanks for being concerned and all..." his face returned to his knees. "I just can't imagine losing pop... I don't know what I'd do without him."

  
She felt her eyes dull, wandering to the side. From her nose came a heave.

  
But then, suddenly, into her brilliant mind popped a potential solution. Yes! It was fantastic! Fool-proof! Impossible to screw up! In just a few seconds, her gaze brightened, then darted back over to the boy as she rose back to her feet.

  
"Percy. Wait here for me; I'll be right back."

  
Instead of looking her, he simply nodded.

  
With that said and done, Nina raised her head high and confidently as she walked away from him, strutting her way back into the rowdiness which was the men's side of the mess hall. All she had to do was search for a suit of black armor, for wherever that black suit of armor was, there was Benny... And where there was Benny, there were sugar cubes.

  
Nina and her 'people watching' prowess just so happened to know that Benny was an animal-lover, and because he was an animal-lover, he made constant visits to the stables to see the horses. With him, he always brought them a treat, which were the sugar cubes he kept in the satchel at his hip... And Nina, being Nina, knew that he almost always kept that satchel on his person.

  
It didn't take long for him to be found, seeing that he and his hulking frame stood out like a sore thumb, and she quickly prowled her way over to him. Even though she was a girl in the men's side, Nina blended in perfectly with that casual air about her; she went completely unnoticed as she passed Benny by. Likewise, the satchel that wasn't in her grasp beforehand didn't snatch the suspicion of any either. Perhaps no one was paying attention to her? Yeah, that may have been the case... That's right, don't pay her any mind; don't pay her any mind at all...

  
She plopped next to Percy when she returned to the corner of the room, and, without hesitation, she flipped the satchel's top and dug around inside. She was not disappointed, for several gritty cubes, brown as dirt, were there to greet her, piled on top of each other like the mother-load. Of course, the sight made her smile, narrowing her eyes deviously.

  
"Here. These'll cheer you up." she said, holding one out to him. Slowly, and curiously, Percy's head peeked out of its hiding place, looking at her strangely. For just a moment, he stared at the article in her fingers before gently taking it into his own; there, he studied it carefully.

  
"Is... Is this a sugar cube?"

  
"Yep." she popped one into her mouth. "All yours if it helps you feel better about your dad."

  
"G-Gee, Nina; you're the best!" his face became excited, throwing one in his mouth as well. "These things are the greatest; they taste just like candy!"

  
So, that's how Nina and Percy wound up sitting in the corner of the mess hall, digging into a bag full of sugar cubes, laughing it up like they were the best of friends. Those who passed them by thought nothing of them, rather smiling at their cuteness; Camilla made the most interesting comment when she walked by, sliding her index down her chin.

  
"Oh my, Percy; I never thought you to be the type to go for older women." she giggled before continuing on.

  
Yep. It was a grand old time they were having, acting as though all was right with the world...

  
Yes.

  
There wasn't anything wrong at all.

  
That is, until there was the clinking of metal on metal that drew closer and closer. Nina didn't even have to look up to know who was coming, and almost immediately, blood left her face, leaving her paler than a ghost. This appeared to capture the concern of Percy, who stopped his finger from tossing another cube into his mouth; he gazed at her strangely.

  
"Something wrong, Nina? You don't look so well..."

  
"Hey." a deep voice rumbled, causing the two to look up. There, of course, stood Benny, who towered over them, his shadow casting down upon their trembling bodies. A frown was on his lips, and his eyes narrowed. "What are you two doing with my satchel? And why are you eating those sugar cubes? I was saving them for my horse friends at the stables."

  
Many who passed by began to stop what they were doing; it wasn't because the hall was congested; it was because the subject had caught their ear... And to Nina's misfortune, one of the first few to stop just so happened to be her father.

  
Percy, confused, looked around.

  
"These're yours, Mister Benny?" he asked. "I had no idea! Nina just walked up to me with them and said I could have some."

  
And then all eyes went to Nina. Again. As though she was some sort of criminal or something.

  
All the attention made the blood return to her face, but in too large of quantities. Before long, she started to laugh nervously, fanning her hand out to the crowd.

  
"Let's not jump to conclusions here. Why would I take a satchel from a big guy like you, Benny? If you caught me, you could snap me in two like a twig. It'd be a death wish to get on _your_ bad side."

  
"Then how did you get my bag?"

  
"Who said this bag was yours? It could just be one that looks similar."

  
"I keep sugar cubes in mine, though."

  
"Whaddya know, so do I! We sure do share a lot more in common than we would think at first glance; we should totally hang out some time."

  
"But there's my name monogramed on it... My mother did that for me when I was nine."

  
The room fell silence, save for a few chitter-chatter in the distance. And, of course, leave it to Soleil to break that era of solace with a snort.

  
"Ooh, busted."

  
That was her cue; the quickest she could, Nina dropped the bag and scooped little Percy into her arms. Leaving no time to spare, she scrambled away on her knees, diving between the legs of unsuspecting bystanders. Some of them lost their balance, others shouted. Hands reached out to her, trying to grapple some of her clothing, but simply weren't fast enough; she crawled under tables, knocking over some chairs, before bursting out of the doors of the mess hall.

  
This time was different from the last, however; instead of staying inside, the people spilled out after her, chasing her in the form of an angry mob. She grit her teeth, her eyes widening, as she pushed her legs harder.

  
Percy, still in her clutches, watched over her shoulder as the people gained on them; his eyes widened when they came uncomfortably close.

  
"Quick, Nina! I'm slowing you; put me down!" after some doing, she complied by throwing him next to her, where he landed square on his feet. From there, he continued next to her, picking up on speed. "I have an idea; if we can get to the stables, we can take Ace! They won't be able to catch us once we're in the skies. Even if they tried to go after us with flyers of their own, they'll never be any match for Ace's speed!"

  
"I don't have any better plans!" she replied, losing her breath. "Lead the way!"

  
And that was exactly what Percy did. The two kept on the tops of their toes, angry shouts following after them. They rushed down an ally of doors, all with a beastly head peeking out; they watched as the two passed by with curiosity, some even stirred from the excitement. Percy knew precisely where Ace, his wyvern, was kept, and didn't leave a moment to spare before he threw open the gate. Behind them, the mob, which had fallen behind in the confusion, was gradually catching up.  
Urgency clouded in Percy's eyes as he leapt on Ace's back without hassle, situating himself on the saddle before offering Nina his palm. Even though she was sure he wouldn't be much help due to his smallness, she took it anyways, receiving what little assistance was available.

  
She was somewhat aboard by the time Ace released an excited roar; he spread his wings before taking to the skies, leaving those on the ground in his wake to shake their fists. However, even though everything seemed all dandy now, things were not all dandy; Nina, having not been completely on Ace's back, hung on a strap dangling from the saddle. She clung for dear life, reaching up in hopes of scrambling to safety. Her goals would not have been met had Percy's hand not been there to assist.  
Finally on Ace's back, Nina watched the ground below, seeing how pursuers took to the skies after them on winged beasts of their own; one of them she recognized to be Shigure's pegasus, the other Beruka's armored dragon. Quickly, she paled, catching her breath.

  
"Well then! Looks like they take the challenge!" observed Percy, handling Ace's reigns steady. "Like I said; they won't won't even touch us!"

  
She could barely hear him over the sound of wind rushing by her ears. Thankfully, she pieced it together just in time to release a groan.

  
"If only I had my bow with me; I could knock those things out of the sky without hurting them too badly. They'd be off our backs then."

  
"There's some axes in the compartment you're sitting on. Feel free to use one if you're confident enough."

  
Curious, Nina looked down, spreading her legs slightly; sure enough, right beneath her sat a box ripe for opening, which she humbly obliged. The task ended up being a bit more difficult than she anticipated with Ace maneuvering in all sorts of wonky ways and her bangs continuing to get in her eyes. However, though, she emerged successful when she pulled what was advertised; a hand axe begging to be thrown.

  
She only had to hold and look at it for a second before promptly putting it back where it belonged. The motion, noticed by Percy sitting front of her, seemed to puzzle him.

  
"Not getting that lucky vibe today?"

  
"Nope." she replied quickly, dull as a butter knife. "Knowing my luck, I'd end up killing someone with that."

  
Percy shrugged.

  
"Fine by me. I'm starting to think we won't be need that anyhoo. See? It looks like we're in the green."

  
Steady, with her braids flying behind her, Nina lifted her head to direct her attentive gaze to the side. They had flown beyond the castle walls, and their pursuers did not dare chase after them; instead, they lingered on the inside, watching them grow further and further away before finally heading towards the ground.

  
It was then, over a dense forest, Percy had Ace stop, treading the sky with his mighty wings. The castle could be seen in the distance, mingling on the horizon which hosted a setting sun. There was only a moment's worth of silence before Percy burst out in laughter, falling back into her.

  
"Wowza, Nina! That was a blast!" he brought himself up and, with the swing of the legs, turned himself around to face her. No longer were his eyes teary and somber as they were before; they were cheery, ignited with a flame.

  
The excitement didn't quiet rub off on Nina as one might think it would; she was far more focused on steadying her breaths, a hand pressing her chest as she huffed a sigh.

  
"I'm just happy they get their filthy hands on us..."

  
Steady, Percy leaned in closer.

  
"Speaking of which..." he began. "Thanks a bunch for saving my skin back there; I would have been taken as an accomplice, so I don't know what would have happened had you not snatched me up the way you did. You had me so surprised!"

  
Nina's attention shifted onto him, her hand sliding off her chest and onto her lap.

  
"Surprised?" she echoed. "Meaning... You didn't think I would help you?"

  
"Exactly!" he replied, enthusiastic. "Pop's said a lot about you and how you have an issue with sticky-fingers. And if you've got sticky-fingers, that makes you a thief. If pop's told me one thing, it's that thieves are no-good, lying, stealing, cheating, back-stabbing, traitorous, murderous, unjust criminals." he breathed for a moment. "But the fact that you took the time to get me outta there, even when it slowed you down... You're not so bad after all, Nina."

  
She frowned suddenly, her face starting to grow hot, almost fuming.

  
"Of course I'm not bad!" she hissed. "What part of me made you think I-"

  
"Nina, can I kiss you?"

  
All of a sudden, her face grew hotter; not with anger, of course, but with embarrassment.

  
"E-Excuse me?"

  
Percy looked up at her, eagerness in his eyes.

  
"I think you're an admirable person; honestly, I do! I'd be honored if you let me kiss you."

  
Her response was delayed.

  
"P-Percy... I think I might be a little too old for you..."

  
"No you're not!" he eased closer. "I may be small, but I'm only small because I'm thin boned!" he balled his hand into a fist, then beat his left breast. "Deep down in here, I'm a man!"

  
Her frown steepened, and slowly, her eyes wandered elsewhere; they watched the sun, starting to hide itself behind a never ending line of mountains. Lights from the castle could be seen now, small as they could be.

  
"Fine, Percy... I'll let you at a kiss. Just one though! And it has to be on the-"

  
Before she could finish, Percy's head collided with hers, their lips smashing against one another's. She sat there, tranquillized; she couldn't pull her head back even if she wanted to. They remained in contact for what felt like forever... Even though it was only about five seconds, innocent as a child.

  
Percy pulled back, his eyes wide with excitement; he observed her stunned face before bestowing a bright grin.  
"Thanks a bunch, Nina! I owe you a whole lot after tonight now, don't I?" he chuckled slightly. "I bet pop'll be real surprised when I tell him how you're not such a bad girl after all."

  
Despite the happiness in his gaze and the comfort of the moment, she had to contain herself. Heck, she wanted more than anything to knock that kid upside the head; if he had let her finish what she was going to say, he would have known that she would have only allowed a peck on the check, not a full-scale smooch on the lips! That boy, both spotless and dirty as a hound...

  
And so, in the silence, Percy flew Ace about, all without saying so much of a word; even so, a smile was on his lips, his head was held high, and his chest puffed out like a penguin. In the meantime, though, with the sound of wind passing her ear gently by, Nina sat with her head hung low.

  
"Hey, Percy..." she started deeply. This grasped his attention.

  
"Yeah?"

  
"I don't want you to look too far into that, okay?"

  
"What, are you talking about the kiss? It was just a gesture of appreciation for helping me cheer up tonight. If anything, it sounds like you're the one who's looking too far into it."

  
She pursed her lips.

  
"I meant what I said about you being too young for me..."

  
"I gotcha." Percy looked over his shoulder, showing her his smile and... Was that a wink? "I guess I'll have to try again when I've grown up a bit, won't I?"

  
She huffed, feeling a smirk tug at her lip.

  
"Maybe we should just be friends until then."

  
"You're saying that like we weren't friends before." he replied. "Don't worry Nina; I know you're not a mean person. You're just awkward. I was never mad at you for yelling at me a while ago, got that?"

  
Her shoulders sunk, her head rolling around loosely.

  
"You have no idea how nice it is to hear that..." she reached out, where she pat his shoulder thoroughly. "You know what, Percy? You're not too bad yourself."

  
And so, as the moon began to rise, Ace flew about aimlessly, flapping his wings time after time. Nothing more was exchanged between the two of them, even when several minutes had passed them by; well, that was the case before Ace suddenly came to a stop again. Percy looked out, gazing at the castle before turning to Nina.

  
"So... Now what do we do?"

 


	8. Nina and the Bait

Nina, when she was in the mood, was capable of being a very hard worker. This was evident in the fact that she had pulled off many successful heists, making off with all sorts of goodies that would keep the hungry fed for at least a few months. As a matter of fact, she could think of only one that she could write off as a failure, but that was because her adversary was an army, an army that just so happened to have Niles in it. Niles, being Niles, knew the ways of thieves having been one himself, and calculated her every move before she even made them.

  
That one wasn't fair, so it didn't count. Thus, Nina could proudly say she had never failed a break-in, all thanks to that sheer dedication of hers.

  
So, because she was so good at working when she wanted to be good at working, Nina returned to camp with quite the load of sticks in her arms, all piled up beyond her head. Her boots scraped against the dirt of the clearing, and, at the far end, she set them down, wiping a tear of sweat from her brow.

  
"Whew." she said. "Got the twigs, Percy."

  
"Great to hear. I'll be done chopping the firewood in just a second."

  
That was odd; Percy's voice was an awful lot deeper than she recalled it. It definitely wasn't that voice of that cute little kid she knew. Not at all. If anything... That sounded like a full grown man.

  
Alarmed, she looked up, seeing him stand over a stump; he swung down his axe, breaking a log in two, his strapping muscles straining from work. He lifted his head afterwards, puffing his thick chest as he released a sigh.

  
"All done. How does breakfast sound?"

  
"P-Percy..." she began, her face starting to flush. "What on earth happened to you?"

  
Percy's eyes widened with concern.

  
"Something wrong, Nina?"

  
"You're... You're buff! And you're tall! And you sound like your father!"

  
Percy relaxed then, starting to laugh.

  
"You sure are funny." he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with a mighty palm. "I guess this is what being stuck in the forest for twenty years does to you."

  
"Tw-Twenty years?"

  
"Yeah, don't you remember? We stole some of Benny's sugar cubes when we were kids; we were chased out of the castle and haven't been able to get back in ever since." he raised a brow playfully. "Don't tell me you hit your head too hard on a rock and forgot everything, did you?"

  
Her breathing picked up, her heartbeat pounding hard enough for her to hear. Her legs wobbled, giving way to have her to land on her knees, her palms grabbing a fistful of dirt.

  
"Twenty years... In the boonies? N-No way... I can't spend twenty years out here! No way!"

  
Her eyes snapped open, a yelp vomiting out of her mouth as she brought herself up. The environment there to greet her was surprisingly tranquil; a little pond sat just a few feet away, birds chirping away their songs. In the distance, there was a clearing, a path of some sort.

  
"Gee, Nina. You don't sound too good... Everything all right?"

  
Terrified, she turned to her side, gazing at the voice. Percy was there, leaning against Ace's side as she had been. His eyelids seemed heavy, groggy from being yanked out of sleep, yet all in the meantime, concerned.

  
He wasn't ripped.

  
That voice of his was still high.

  
He was just as short as she recalled him.

  
At last, she sighed in relief, allowing her shoulders to sink. Losing structure, she fell back, resting against Ace once again.

  
"Just a nightmare." she sighed. "We were stuck out here for twenty years."

  
"Wow! Twenty years is a long time!"

  
Her face started to turn blue.

  
"N-No kidding."

  
"No need to worry about that, Nina; once we're ready, we should go back to the front gate of the castle and see if we can get back in. Maybe after they've slept on it, everyone might not be so mad at us anymore."

  
That's what they were counting on, and boy were they mistaken to do so. The castle itself wasn't far away, for a simple walk along a trail would deliver them to the gates. The only problem was what was there to greet them when they got there: a guard which stood watch at the front.

  
The sight made her grit her teeth, taken back in distaste. Likewise, Percy stopped, standing on his toes to get a better glimpse.

  
"They never have a guard up front." Nina hissed angrily. "They must've figured we'd come back.

  
"Not sure why they'd only have one there. Two can easily overpower one."

  
Well, Nina was about to wonder the same thing before the realized who that person at the front was; it was a boy, slender in frame, holding a naginata in his hand. Part of his face was lost to a lock of hair, blue as the sky. The sight made Nina narrow her eyes.

  
"It's Shigure." she murmured. "They must've had him stand watch on purpose."

  
"Oh? Why say that? Rumor had it that two of you broke up."

  
"My money says that's the reason why he's there..."

  
The two had intentions to continue talking, hoping to conceive a plan, but that was before Shigure's hand went up, waving at them. The motion made the two jump, scrambling back a step or two.

  
"Blast, he can see us!" Percy cried.

  
Before Nina could reply, a voice called out to them; it was definitely Shigure's voice, mellow as a lark.

  
"Nina. There's no need to hide any longer; I can see you. Come down here so that I may speak with you."

  
The two remained still, soon exchanging looks. Percy blinked. Nina blinked. At last, the former shrugged.

  
"Go on." he said. "If anything happens, Ace and I'll be there to swoop down and get you out."

  
She sighed, straightening her posture.

  
"No need, Percy." she murmured. "Just wait here, I'll deal with him..." and with that, she started forth, making her way up to the front of the castle...

  
...Had Nina known the walk up there was more of a walk of shame, she probably would have changed her mind back there and did nothing. Sure enough, though, the air between she and the one she approached was thick with tension, her head hung low. She fought the temptation to look up, no matter how loudly it beckoned her; only when she was before him did her eyes meet his face.

  
His expression wasn't quite as hardened as she figured it to be, surprisingly. Though there was a pinch that was demanding, it was serene for the most part, looking down at her with his golden eyes. He butt of his naginata touched the ground.

  
"Hello, Nina."

  
She looked to the side.

  
"Hey. Here so you can slap some cuffs on my wrists and haul me off to the prison again?"

  
"That won't be necessary, actually."

  
"I get it, I'm a thief; at least I was doing it to help someone. Go on; you can drag me to that cell all you want, but you can't extinguish my dignity. I'm going to keep doing what I-" her eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

  
Shigure shook his head.

  
"I saw you in the mess hall last night, Nina." he said. "The way you looked at Percy as he passed by, acting as though he had been told the world was to end. You went to help him, looking for any way to cheer him up..." his head shook. "I explained everything to Lord Corrin and Benny, and they were sympathetic, especially the latter. He wasn't upset with you after learning that you took his sugar cubes to give them to Percy..."

  
She watched him as his gaze sunk, dulling sadly.

  
"So... Am I getting this right? I'm not in trouble?"

  
"No, not for helping someone. Of course, there were always better methods of accomplishing your goal, but in the end, they  still had good intentions." his eyes shut. "I volunteered to keep watch at the gate for you because I hoped we would be able to speak the soonest possible. I'm sorry, Nina. I treated you poorly, thinking the worst of you. I overreacted when you insulted those of royal name; I should have known you thought my mother and I as an exception." he released a huff, then gave way to a tiny smirk. "My, doesn't that feel like a weight off my chest. I'm happy to have finally told you; please, take my words however you please, I won't discriminate your decision."

  
Nina's eyes were wide, a hot blush painted across her face; for a good while, perhaps until she could feel the air of discomfort steaming from him, she stared without moving a muscle.

  
"Um..." she began. "Th-Thanks for the apology, Shigure. I'm sorry I... Uh... Was so vague when I said that back there." a hand rested on her hip. "So what happens now? Do I get to come back in?"

  
"Not without first speaking with Lord Corrin." replied the boy. "Rest assured, you're the only one he wishes to see; Percy is not in any sort of trouble, so he is welcome to come inside whenever he wishes." slowly, he lifted his naginata, then nodded. "Let's not leave a moment to waste, shall we? Follow me, please."

  
Shigure delivered Nina to Corrin's private quarters, just as she had suspected. Easily, he held the door open for her, but never did he set foot inside; to her alarm, she found that he left her alone.

  
So, in front of the door to a warm colored room, Nina stood awkwardly, looking around. A pair of bookshelves had once again been filled with books she remembered bringing to her tent, and that little trinket on the nightstand was back too, even though she last saw it in her tent as well.

  
They must have ransacked her place while she was gone. Great. Just great. That was sure to make her look fabulous.

  
"Good to see you showed up again. I was beginning to wonder if you and Percy ran off and decided to never come back." called a voice, mild. Her attention went to the little table at the side of the room; at it, there sat Corrin, sipping from a cup of tea. Before him, across from his seat, was a chair. For some reason, she had a feeling that seat had her name written on it somewhere.

  
She felt a wave of heat scale her body as she locked up; even so, she slapped on a fake grin.

  
"Oh, you know me; always getting back on that bucking horse..."

  
"Why don't you come have a seat?" the tone of his voice didn't exactly give her any options besides what he obviously insisted. With no room to squirm or run, Nina awkwardly approached the table. "So where did you and Percy spend the night?"

  
"In a clearing in the woods. It wasn't quite as bad as it may sound."

  
"That's good to hear; you've always seemed like a real trooper, so I'm not entirely surprised."

  
The seat might as well have had nails sticking out of it; the moment Nina sat herself down, she wanted to get up. Instead, she fought that urge with a strain, cringing on the inside.

  
"Oh, flattery... Sounds like you've found one of my weaknesses... Haha..."

  
"Don't worry, we've found another one." mentioned another voice, one that did not belong to Corrin; meddling with the tone was a few clicking noises. And something cold that brushed against her leg.

  
Her heart nearly stopped as she turned to her side with a gasp. There, standing beside her, was Felicia, who had just got done cuffing her ankle to a leg of the chair. Terrified, Nina's mouth gaped, and sweat began to spill from her forehead.

  
"Wha-"

  
"It's nothing to lose your breath over; we just can't have those sticky fingers of yours getting the best of you today." Felicia chirped, flashing a devious smile.

  
Nina turned back to Corrin, flabbergasted.

  
"No way! I've been conned! Cheated! Lied to! Shigure said you weren't mad at me!" she started to struggle, hoping to liberate her ankle, now mated with the chair. "No, no, no, no, no, no. Y-You can't do this sort of thing, disabling me on a chair; haven't you heard about what people to do people when they're tied down to chairs? I'm a young innocent girl! They'll believe me when I testify to the crimes you're about commit! You won't get away with this, I swear by it!"

  
The room fell silent to have Corrin and Felicia fix their eyes on her, bestowing an awkward, if not embarrassed, scowl.  
"No, Nina..." Corrin started, frowning. "We're not going to do anything to you. You should know that we would have to do something when you steal everything within arm's reach."

  
She gasped suddenly, taken back.

  
"Everything within arms reach?" she echoed. "You paint me into some sort of felon when you put it that way! I have to say that I feel horribly misrepresented, I-"

  
"I didn't call you in here to talk about that, Nina." Corrin's gaze hardened as he pulled up his chair. What an odd sight he was; seldom had she seen him so on edge, and never had it been because of her. That alone was enough to shut her up. "Since you clearly won't listen to your father, I'm taking matters into my own hands."

  
"B-But I thought you weren't angry at me f-"

  
"Nina, I want to start by saying that you are an invaluable asset to my army; you're fast, you're down to business, you're a good shot... But this habit of yours needs to stop. I know that what you did last night had pure intentions, but I can't let you walk away with what you did scot-free. Stealing wasn't the answer."

  
Her chest began to burn again, a certain pressure building in her lungs; how she wanted to make a run for it, but in the end she knew it would do her nothing. Instead, she basked in the scorching rays of defeat, her head hung low. As a matter of fact, it hung low enough to have her wham her forehead on the table.

  
"Oh..." she mewled. "You're going to throw me back into that prison cell, aren't you? I... I got so lonely in there, C-Corrin. Nobody came to see me for weeks."

  
Corrin raised a brow.

  
"I don't see why you would complain about that since I never see you talking to people anyways. What difference does it make?"

  
Well, she wasn't going to tell him the key difference between being alone in a cell without windows and being alone in the open world. Her eyes couldn't be quite as... Prying... In a cell without windows.

  
"At least I get some sunlight when I'm out and about. Loneliness and dark places don't mix well, you know? I remember when I caught a cold a few years ago and had to stay in my dark room for several days straight. As soon as I was cured, I think I had contracted depression..."

  
Corrin and Felicia looked at her for a while, soon rolling their eyes. With a huff, the former shook his head.

  
"In any case, putting you back in the prison wasn't the idea I had in mind as far as punishment goes..."

  
Slowly, Nina lifted her head, her gaze wide and full of wonder.

  
"Y-You're kidding me..." she breathed.

  
"Nope." Corrin replied. "But you may not like the alternative any better. According to your father, you'd rather be in hell than in the kitchen."

  
And her eyes got wider.

  
"No way."

  
Corrin shrugged.

  
"Sorry."

 


	9. Nina and the Kitchen

Nina was a girl with decent arsenal of talents. Sure, she wasn't the greatest at singing or dancing, but she easily made up for that with a prowess for agility and scribbling interesting notes or stories in her secret journal. Yes, Nina was the aspiring little writer, staying up in her tent jamming a piece of charcoal on her paper until the candle ran out of wax. The only thing was, Nina was a hidden artist of sorts; only when she was dead, she swore, would people read her stories.

  
Of course, since Nina was modest the majority of the time, she would never go off and tell someone of her abilities without a conversation demanding of it beforehand. So, many went unaware, writing her off as that weird girl that hung out around the corners of buildings like a creep... Which she also kind of was...

  
That wasn't the point.

  
While Nina did have gifts in some places, by no means did that make her void of terrible weaknesses. Nope, Nina was just like everybody else, having a demon to wrestle with time and time again.

  
One of those demons was cooking.

  
Nina, not even to save her life, could not cook. Her caretaker from the Deeprealms wouldn't dare let her operate a stove; it wasn't because her caretaker wanted to make things easier on her by cooking all her meals for her, no, it was mainly because her caretaker knew that good things never came out of Nina in the kitchen.

  
And Nina, like an idiot, was too embarrassed to admit this indelible flaw in her; instead, she went around telling people, like her dad and Corrin, that she shouldn't have kitchen duty too often because she was a lousy cook. This wasn't entirely a lie, seeing that the majority of her meals were black shriveled-up pieces of garbage, but that was just the least of her worries.

Instead, her worries were at the on the fact that she had terrible luck in that confounded kitchen. Kitchens had stoves. Stoves used fire. Fire burns things down. The kitchen, so she's learned, was a bad place to have ill luck. Bad luck in the living room may have been better, as would the dining room... But the kitchen? No, anything but the kitchen. The kitchen had way too many dangerous things in it.

  
And guess where Nina ended up?

  
In the kitchen.

  
She stood in the midst of it, being a stranger, as she watched Corrin give her the grand tour. It wasn't quite as grand as some would believe it to be, seeing that it did not consist of anything more than an oven, stove, sink and pantry. It may as well have been a torture chamber, for her face was drained of any color.

  
"...And finally, over here we have the pantry. Watch out over here; when we started to have rodent problems, we had to figure out a way to control it. Jakob tried to get Beruka to kill them off, but she wasn't interested. So, we had no choice but to lay out some snap-traps. If you're not careful, those things can break a finger in half." Corrin opened a door, revealing a closet stocked with raw material. There was a modest amount in there, every sort she could imagine; lots of people would kill just to have a little bit.

"Um... Corrin...?"

"That should have about covered it. You're free to come to me if you have any questions about the equipment, but just know that I'm not going to do your job for you."

  
"Corrin."

He stopped to look at her, his lips sealing into a neutral frown. Nina was a pale mess, frozen in her stance; if he wasn't mistaken, he'd say she had just seen some sort of phantom.

  
"Yes Nina?"

  
"I-I need to tell you something..."

  
"What?"

  
She looked away, furrowing her brows as her hands wrestled with one another behind the shield of her back. Quickly, she took a heave through her nostrils.

  
"I said I shouldn't have kitchen duty because I'm a bad cook..." she looked at him suddenly. "Which I am, don't get the wrong idea..."

  
He raised a brow.

  
"So you _are_ a bad cook."

  
"Yes, but that's not the real reason why I said I shouldn't be here." boy did she not want to say this. "You see... I'm not cut out for this place because... I'm really lousy in the kitchen."

  
She noticed how his expression sunk.

  
"Why?"

  
"Because."

  
"Because why?"

  
She huffed.

  
"Come on, you know me; I can't do a single thing without my mind wandering places and staying there for too long! If I use the stove to cook something, the food inside is better off going to the dogs. Even worse, this whole building may go up in flames! I remember when I cooked something for the first time in the Deeprealms; I was standing over a rack of cookies in the oven when this... This..." her face reddened. "This whole gang of studs passed by my window!"

  
Corrin shrugged.

  
"Why didn't you ignore them?"

  
"How could I? They were all over each other, laughing it up like they were friends since birth...!" she gasped. "And if I remember correctly, I think one pair said their families were sharing a house; how could they not be best friends?"

  
"Nina." she looked up at him, roused from her ramblings. "I never would have thought this of you, but are you a liar as well?"

  
She gasped.

  
"A liar? Never! Why would you think I'd lie to you unless it was to protect someone?"

  
"Because I think you're lying to me right now. If you really have problems while cooking, I don't understand why you couldn't have told me before instead of just saying you make bad food."

  
She remained still, her flush thickening.

  
"W-Well... This is bad timing... Isn't it..."

  
"Quit trying to get out of your work." he turned around, walking out the door. "Supper's in three hours, and everyone's going to be expecting at least one serving!"

  
Desperate, she rushed after him.

  
"H-Hang on a second! I at least get a helper, don't I?"

  
No. Nina did not get a helper. Instead, she was left in the kitchen. Alone. Trembling. A whole army was going to be in the mess hall in three hours, all expecting a meal from little ol' her! She didn't even know what to cook...

  
That's how she wound up digging around cabinets until she finally found something that would prove useful to her: an old cookbook that belonged to Peri. Most of the things inside seemed rather delicious, a few dishes she even recognized from previous meals; it would be easiest if she chose something she was familiar with and followed its instructions. What could go wrong?

  
Apparently everything could go wrong, and one of those things was called not having the ingredients most of the recipes called for. She was becoming desperate before long, flipping to pages with meals she'd never heard of written inside. All of them drove her to a deeper state of nervousness.

  
"Let's see... Cabbage salad? I hate cabbage, but at least it's something I know we have in here..." when she stuck her head in the pantry, though, she would find only a single head of cabbage. The sight made her frown. "Okay. Fine." she flipped to the next page. "Peach Cobbler. I think that's a dessert, but I wouldn't bet on anyone really caring at this point." no peaches either.

  
It was only a matter of minutes later, she was yelling at the top of her lungs. A pair chatting at one of the tables outside the kitchen, Elise and Effie, would halt their conversation to hear...

  
"Fish! Does it look like I have any fish in this pantry? Of course I don't!"

  
...Before shrugging and acting as though they heard nothing.

  
Soon, the book would find itself hurled onto the counter with a huffing Nina hunched over in the midst of the room; with her shoulders stiff, she buried her face in her palms.

  
"Just calm down, Nina..." she murmured to herself. "So what if that book doesn't offer a lick of help? Just come up with a recipe of your own."

  
And that was exactly what she did.

  
Nina spent a few minutes with her head cooped up in the pantry, studying what materials were available to her. There was quite a bit to her fortune, but it was stuff she didn't know what to do with; some of it she didn't even recognize if it was food. After a while, she began digging, searching for something she may have missed. There were a few things more that would prove useful, such as a few slabs of cured meat wrapped in paper. The other thing she found greeted her with a snap. She yelped before yanking her hand back; it wasn't injured, thank goodness, but she was too afraid to test her luck and go back in.

  
With everything she was familiar with spread out in front of her, Nina stood, running a thumb over her chin, scrunching her nose.

  
"Hmm. Something that would fill everyone up... Enough not to ask for seconds..."

  
Then it came to her: starch. Everybody loved starch, didn't they? It could make all sorts of great stuff like... Well, she couldn't think of anything in particular at the moment, but she was sure starch would do the trick. After all, it wasn't her fault if someone threw a fit because they didn't like starch; they could just starve.

  
With that said and done, Nina lugged bag after bag of wheat onto the counter, and when she was done with that, she moved on to rice. She stared at her piece of work with her hands on her hips, the gears in her head cranking and turning.  
Now that she acquired the starch, what was she to do with it? She wasn't entirely sure, but she knew of a fool-proof plan for emergencies, and a fool-proof plan it was. All she had to do was go scavenger for a pan, pour it all in, then mix it.

  
And that was exactly what she did.

  
After doing so, she stared at the meal with prejudice; sure white powder with some rice scattered around looked _superbly_ appetizing, but something was missing... That's right. It was the milk. So, without a word, she zoomed down to the cellar, where she returned with a few buckets in tow. They were carelessly dumped into the pans, giving just a slight splash.

  
Their final destination would be what she feared the most; the oven. She approached the oven cautiously, almost as though she could have sworn it was some sort of wild beast. After dumping her masterpiece inside, she threw the hatch to the furnace open, observing the inside. The pile of ashes made her face become grim; if she screwed this up, that pile may get a _heck_ a lot bigger.

  
After gathering a guessed amount of burning wood from the corner, she began sliding logs inside, piling one after the other until she had a nice pyramid. An additional stick of a fire-starter gave the mound a title barely worthy of fire. At last, she brought the match; after striking it, she tossed it in with a terrified squeak before slamming the hatch shut and rushing for shelter. A few minutes into her cover, she noticed that nothing had changed. So, with a face of curiosity, she crawled back over to the oven, peering into the furnace cautiously; the sight made her snarl.

  
The darn thing didn't even catch fire.

 


	10. Nina and the Middle

Like most, Nina took well to praise. Now, she didn't go to drastic lengths to get such a thing; Nina wasn't that desperate. Back in her days in the Deeprealms, she didn't deliver a big bag of money to the slums just to see all the people falling at her feet, wailing words of gratitude... But feeling like some sort of mythical hero wasn't the worst feeling in the world, she had to admit.

  
It really didn't matter how much Nina did or didn't like praise; she wasn't getting any at dinner.

  
As it could be seen from miles away, when everyone had come into the mess hall, the room quickly went quiet, especially when all looked down at their plates. Seated where they usually sat, thinking they would have another routine conversation with their friends and allies, everybody was frowning.

  
Everybody.

Even Soleil.

  
"I dare say." on, Jakob, scoffed. "This is offensive."

  
It was an equal sight for everyone; on their plate was a small square of... Something. Something gritty. And soggy. Whatever it was, everybody was reluctant to even touch it.

  
...And tonight was one of those nights when everyone knew who was responsible for their supper. All eyes went to her, standing behind the counter with her chin propped up by a fist.

  
"Young lady!" called the butler. "What sort of atrocity is this?"

  
"It doesn't look very good..." agreed his son lowly, poking at it with his fork.

  
Nina, hearing the calls of her beloved customers, perked.

 

"I call it rice bread." she answered simply. "Take it or leave it, I don't care."

  
That's when the room fell into an uproar, the sound of chatter smothering the awkwardness of silence.

  
"I'm not sure if this is edible..."

  
"Will it be good for my skin? I don't think it's good for anything."

  
"That's all the meal is? Where's the protein? The vegetables? The fruit?"

  
"Well... I've seen worse on the road, but this definitely isn't far from competition."

  
"Maybe it's not so bad after all?"

  
"I think I'm just going to be hungry tonight."

  
"Yikes; my village had to eat whatever they could to survive the winter, but it was always better than this..."

  
"Who let this person cook? I oughta give them a piece of my mind."

  
"Someone worked hard on this. I can't let it go to waste, but..."

  
"What a waste of resources."

  
Nina listened to it all, all with a dull face. She was expecting it. She was expecting all of it, so it didn't come as a surprise to her. Because of this, it had no effect on her whatsoever, not even wound her fragile feelings.

  
A while into supper, it became clear that nobody was interested in eating Nina's food, seeing that the majority neglected to do anything with it. Instead, they went on to talking, laughing, telling stories just like every night. It was during that time, Corrin approached her, holding a plate with only a few crumbs left behind. The sight baffled her, causing her to lift her gaze from the counter.

  
"Wow. I'm surprised you actually ate it..."

  
"And it's all I will eat." he said stiffly. "You're relieved of your kitchen duties after tonight, Nina. Don't worry about working here ever again."

  
The sound was like music to her ears, but it didn't keep her from hearing a clink of a platter sound at her side. When she turned to look, she found Shigure, lightly placing his plate on the counter with an uneasy smile. Though the uneasy smile was worth a glance, what was truly worthy of attention was the loaf of rice bread on his plate; a few bites had been taken out of it. Ever so slightly, Nina raised a brow.

  
"You look like you actually dared to try some too... What's wrong with you people?" she commented, equally amused. To this, Shigure released a slightly chuckle, hiding a hand behind his head.

  
"Well... Nina, I have to say that I wanted to like your cooking, but I... I just couldn't bring myself to take a third bite I'm afraid. By no means do I insult you, I hope you realize."

  
"Hm. Thanks for being honest, but ask me if I care." she shrugged. "I take no offense at all, trust me. I saw this coming a mile away. Heck, I'm surprised you and Corrin even bothered to give it a chance, if not slightly flattered..." she made a strange noise afterwards.

  
It didn't take much to see Percy walking by at that moment, carrying an empty platter himself. He looked up at Shigure, much taller than he, before furrowing his brows, pooching his lips, then puffing out his little chest.

  
"Hmf!" he released. "If you can flatter her just by trying it, pretty boy, I'll bet I can blow her socks off with this!" he reached up to the counter, where he slapped his platter; it was sparkling clean, not a crumb left behind. "Don't worry, Nina! Even though other people apparently seem to hate it, I like your cooking! Hit me with another!"

  
Nina, while lowering her eyelids, looked down at him.

  
"Percy." she began lowly. "I know what you're doing, so stop forcing yourself. Don't eat anymore if you think it doesn't taste good... Which I'm sure it doesn't."

  
"Sounds to me like you haven't tried it. How do you know it's bad?"

  
"I listen to what people have to say."

  
"Okay, okay, fine. I promise, though; I like it! I really do like it! Will you please give me some more?"

  
Shigure watched the two the entire time with a smile, chuckling down at the boy as he watched Nina reluctantly serve him another square of her rice bread. In the meantime, while Percy proceeded to gnaw on his second portion, he crossed his arms.

  
"It would sound as though you've made a new friend, Nina." he commented lightly. "A night stuck out in the woods together is a good means of bonding I hear."

  
"You bet cha!" cried Percy from below after swallowing his first bite. "And in doing so..." he reached up to jam his index in Shigure's chest. "You've got yourself a rival! Um... Assuming you're going to try to get back together with her..." he looked over at Nina, then back to Shigure. "Well? Come on, don't leave me hanging; are you going to reconcile with her? Give me a hard time?"

Shigure, momentarily taken back, blinked a time or two, eyeing up to the ceiling.

  
"An excellent question." he glanced at Nina, whose face was reddening. "I just might take it into heavy consideration. Yes, I believe I shall if she is willing to humor it." he nodded, then held his hand down to the boy. "In such a case, it seems that you and I are, in fact, now rivals. How about we shake to play fair and square? This isn't a place where foul play is smiled upon after all."

  
Without a moment to spare, Percy set his plate, clean once more, back on the counter. His hand went to Shigure's, returning his gesture with a tight and curt shake.

  
"You're on!" he complied.

  
While the two were far more fixated on each other and their newly-formed pact, they neglected to pay any attention to she that stood behind the counter. Her face had grown deathly hot, red as a tomato in its prime. When Shigure and Percy finally turned to look at her, they were in for a flood of concern, watching her stand stiff as a board, trembling as though she were freezing.

  
"Oh dear." Shigure commented. "Is everything okay, Nina?"

  
She blinked quickly, taking in a huff of air.

  
"A-Are you two... Making a d-deal to fight over me fairly?"

  
"If you don't have any better way to put it, I suppose so."

  
They were also in for a surprise when she suddenly released a squeal, cupping her burning cheek with her palms. Her form grew flimsy, eyes gazing off into a completely different world.

  
"Then that would mean I'm in the midst of a love triangle!" with nothing more, she collapsed then and there, lying on the ground with a river of drool spilling out of her mouth. The sound of her falling brought up the heads of many; a few rushed to help, and others simply rolled their eyes.

  
"Holy cow!" cried Percy, who had begun dashing to the opposite side of the counter. He held the fallen girl in his arms, gazing down at her with a worried face. "She just fell like she got knocked out! Is she okay?"

  
In came Niles, who plowed through a few surrounding shoulders; all it took was a single look at her face to make him shrug.

  
"Meh. She's fine."


	11. Nina and the Smithy

Nina and old people were like fish and berries. Both were superb on their own, but they couldn't mix. They refused to mix. At least, they refused to mix and make something good out of it. All one would get is a heap of... Something. Something slimy, sweet, and bitter all at once. It had the potential to gag, sicken perhaps. Such was the reason why Nina knew it was best that she steered clear of elders.

  
Many would wonder; why is this so? The answer was fairly simple: Nina, though she let it on or not, had a little bubble of pride in her heart, a bubble that wasn't easily popped. This bubble of pride did not like it when people commented on those odd habits of hers, mainly discriminating.

  
And what group of people just so happened to discriminate her the most? The old fashioned folks.

  
Time after time Niles had reminded Nina to listen and take advice from her elders, but as many times as he told her, they were spaced out on the plane of time. A few visits to the Deeprealms every blue moon wasn't enough to enforce this virtue on Nina. So what happened? A little pocket swelled in Nina's vulnerable heart.

  
This wasn't looking to be a good thing, especially when Corrin approached her the next day.

  
Nina was out doing her business, finally getting around to target practice with her bow. She had to say that she was in fine form that day; the eyelid of her left eye shut with just the right amount of pressure to where it didn't twitch all the time, her tongue at the perfect degree of saturation as it grazed over her lips. When she didn't get a bullseye, she was frighteningly close.

  
The final arrow in her quiver would be shot askew, though, for a voice sounded behind her, causing a yelp.

  
"You're doing well, Nina. You and your father both make it seem so easy."

  
Alarmed, she turned around, where she saw a man approaching her stance. Just a moment's observation calmed her, having her relax her bow.

  
"Hey Corrin." she nodded as she received him, giving him a slight smirk. "Thanks. The guys in the next battle won't know what hit 'em."

  
Corrin's red gaze softened.

  
"That's good to hear, since it means I can confidently assume you'll be fine without any further practice."

  
"You know what they say: practice makes perfect. I'd be fine without anymore, but I would always use it." her eyes opened suddenly, and they darted over to him. "Wait, what? Where are you going with this?"

  
The man drew just a pinch closer.

  
"Instead of working on your bow, Nina, I've come to tell you that it's time to work on something else of yours." he said, his tone easing to the strict side. "To be specific, I mean your 'issues.'"

  
She blinked, staring at him strangely as she allowed her bow-wielding arm to slap her thigh.

  
"H-Hang on. You said I don't have to work kitchen duty anymore..."

  
"That doesn't mean I don't have a job for you elsewhere."

  
Though it was unnoticeable in the brightness of the sunlight, she paled.

  
"Um... Okay..."

  
"Good to see you're cooperative. Go get your arrows and follow me, please."

  
Initially, Nina had no idea what she was about to get herself into. Had she known, she probably would have made a run for it as she had before she got thrown in the prison. Ironically, had she fled, she probably would have gotten away with it, seeing that her father was no where in sight.

  
That Corrin sure was smart not to tell her where it was he was taking her. In fact, he even went one step further and lied to her about it, fearing she would run even after. Such an example would be when they were walking amongst the castle grounds, down the dirt path which led to the commercial district. Several faces from the army waved at them, namely the man next to her, and some went as far as to report items they'd found on the ground; Corrin took it all casually as though he was used to it.

  
Then suddenly the hairs on the back her of neck stood; unless she was losing her mind to paranoia, she'd say they were heading straight for the smithy shop. The smithy shop! Was there a more dangerous place for an inexperienced girl such as herself? Granted, Nina wasn't nearly as clumsy as someone like Felicia, but by no means did that omit her from making mistakes; one trip could have her face in a pool of molten steel.

  
She decided to laugh it off, then turn her gaze elsewhere in hopes of easing her anxieties. Lucky for her, there just so happened to be a hunk making his way across their path, crossing the street without noticing them. It was no problem at all to get her head away from the smithy, but all it took was one simple voice to snap her out of her fantasies.

  
"Nina? What are you laughing for?" Corrin asked. "Did you see something funny?"

  
She woke up, looking around cooly.

  
"Oh, I wasn't laughing at much..." she sighed. "Me and my silly imagination thought you were taking me to work at the smithy. Thank goodness I have the logic to tell me _that's_ not going to happen."

  
He too laughed.

  
"Of course I'm not taking you to the smithy; it's too dangerous in there for someone like you. Your physique would make it difficult to pick up heavy ore and weapons, so I think you would shine in other places."

  
She breathed a sigh before laughing with him. Thanks to that, she could rule out the smithy as a possibility. Anywhere else wouldn't be too bad, seeing that she's worked there before. The accessory shop wasn't too shabby of a workplace, seeing that hardly anyone ever went in there. The armory may be a bit harder, but she could definitely manage. The lottery shop would be a dream come true; she would have to do nothing but spin a stupid wheel around every now and then.

  
Something was off though... If she wasn't mistaken, she'd say they weren't getting closer to any of these places. No... If anything, they were getting closer to the smithy.

  
Again, she started to laugh, drawing the attention of her neighbor.

  
"What now?"

  
"For a second, I was thinking you were lying to me back there when you said you weren't taking me to the smithy. Ha! As if you'd ever lie to me..."

  
Just a second later, they were at the front door, standing before it silently. Her expression grew puzzled not even a moment afterwards.

  
"Um..."

  
"Sorry Nina, I had to lie so you wouldn't run." Corrin sighed as he turned to look at her. "This is my second to last resort for you; working in the smithy with Gunter has never done someone nothing. I've been told it builds character."

  
"Character? Are you saying I have no character?" she burst, suddenly angry.

  
"No. I'm saying that some of your character is causing us undeniable issues, and it needs to be set straight."

  
"I don't believe this! Why, I'm starting to think I'm offended..." she turned then, considering to run.

  
They say the eyes are the window to the soul; however true or untrue the statement was in general, it was true for Nina. All Corrin had to do was look at her to make his face harden, and he held up his head. Immediately, all who had been around them, seeming to mind their own silly business, surrounded the pair. A wall formed from the thickness of legs and torsos; it was a wall large enough to intimidate the ever-so-confident soul of the girl. She paused then, allowing her eyes to widen, especially when her gaze fell upon that hunk she was delightfully observing earlier. Even he had turned against poor little her.

  
"Nina." Corrin muttered stiffly as she slowly turned to him.

  
"Th-This isn't fair." she whimpered. "I-I can't go in there. I'd be useless!"

  
Before Corrin could reply, or have her continue, a hand suddenly set itself on her shoulder. It was a particularly large hand, one whose sensation made her back jolt and beg to crawl away from it; she wouldn't make it far, for the grip had tightened. That grip, to her dismay, was a grip she simply could not struggle away from. When she finally gave up, daring to peer over her pitiful shoulder, she would find the wrinkling face of Gunter looking down at her, scowling as though he had a bone to pick with her... Which he shouldn't have. Nina made sure to never steal anything from him, that only being because she had eavesdropped on a handful of his bloody war stories. So why was this man angry with her? She couldn't figure it out.

  
"Punishment isn't supposed to be pleasant." he piped before beginning to drag her along. Without anything more, he shoved the door to the smithy back open; all in the meantime, Nina cried for help, only to be silenced when the door slammed shut.

Left behind, Corrin heaved a sigh, cracked an awkward smile, then turned to his crowd.

  
"Thanks for sticking with the deal, everyone. You'll get your money at dinner."

  
And everyone cheered.

  
Except for Nina.

  
Nina wasn't cheering. Nina was busy standing in the midst of a hot, musky forge, too terrified to move. She hadn't even been standing there for a few minutes and she had already begun spilling sweat; whether that was because she was nervous or hot, she wasn't exactly sure. Regardless, it was evident enough to have the old Gunter take notice of it. Of course, it wasn't exactly something that was difficult to notice anyhow; one would have to go out of their own way just to ignore how her pale skin, now shiny, glowed against the golden light of distant flames. He approached her stiffly, looking down at her.

  
Ooh. Nina could could see it. She could just feel it, the way he was looking down at her- not literally, but figuratively. It made her face harden as well.

  
"To start, young lady, you'll need to be taking off that cape of yours. It won't do you any good in here. If anything, it'll make you pass out quicker."

  
She looked down at what she could see of her shoulders; from them clung the straps of the said cape. She had that cape had a particularly intricate bond, whether her liked to admit it or not. In battle, it was that cape that made her feel heroic, heroic as she saved her fellow fliers from a sinister Kinshi Knight as it started to draw an arrow. Heroic as she shot down a mage before it could cast a spell towards a knight. Heroic as she plucked away enemy after enemy from the safe place of an unnoticed corner. That cape was cool. It almost defined her.

  
"But I'm an adventurer. I have to wear it. I can't be an adventurer when I don't have a cape."

  
She saw Gunter grow visibly displeased.

  
"What would it make you if it were to go away?"

  
"Not sure. I guess I'd just be a plain ol' outlaw again. I'm on too much of a roll to get demoted now, so I'm sure you'd understand, right?"

  
"Hmf. Too bad, I suppose. You're getting demoted today; henceforth, until Lord Corrin orders it, you're nothing more than my apprentice. Take off the cape."

  
Her eyes narrowed as he walked away; she couldn't admit it to herself, but she was too afraid to disobey him. Such was why she slowly lifted her hands, which undid the clasp on her shoulders. The cape hit the ground behind her with a subtle thud. Never before, she then realized, had she felt so... Terribly naked. Something felt wrong. Very wrong. And it was that wrongness that had her stiffen and have a chill rush up her spine; ironically, that chill felt quite nice in the inescapable heat which was the entire building.

  
Gunter was probably one of those dirty old men, trying to get a peek of young girls such as she. Having such a strong sense of justice, Nina would have none of that. She would rather die than have to lay down her dignity, unannounced but polished. She was already beginning to plan; if Corrin was going to continue to insist that she had to keep on working for this wrinkly old low-life, she really would run away. She'd hit the road with an iron fist and never look back!

  
When she got to thinking about it, Nina actually thought she would fair quite nicely out in the wilderness. After all, she wasn't promoted to adventurer for nothing. Being rather tolerant, she could easily live off of bland plants and berries for days, and thanks of her prowess in archery, she could get an occasional helping of meat. Maybe she would run across a random town, somehow thriving in the middle of nowhere...

  
"And then I'll go inside the local tavern. They'll all stop with their card games and swigging at their beer to watch the batwings swing open, allowing inside a rather stout young girl, mysterious and elegant. Her braids were crude and fraying, a sign of how true of an adventurer she was; all the work of climbing and trekking left her no time to dilly with her hair, after all. I'll make my way across that isle, calm and collected, acting as though I'm minding my own business. Then, after plopping down, I'll stake my territory on the bar and order myself a drink; not something hard, but not something light either. I'll gulp it all down in one shot and have the whole room cheering! I'll sweep 'em off their feet when I whip out my bow, then fire five consecutive arrows to the dartboard from the opposite wall. It'll hit the bullseye once, then the next arrow will split it open, then the next one will split that one open... And after everyone applauds, the most dangerous hunk in town will approach me, then take one of my hands into his... 'Nina,' he'll say, his eyes desperately delving into mine with ease. 'Please, won't you let me take you home tonight?'"

  
"A bad judge of character if he only chooses a woman based off how well she can shoot a bow."

  
Nina froze, snapping back. In front of her, once again, she would find Gunter, his face grim once more.

  
"W-What do you want?" her face reddened.

  
"I've told you to ready the coal at least five times by now." he scoffed, turning away. "Children these days."


	12. Nina and Her Frenemy

There were things about Nina that Nina didn't exactly care to tell people openly. These types of things were not things she didn't want to say out of humbleness; she knew they were screwed up and she knew others knew they were screwed up. Of course, if someone were to grow close enough, she would let them in on the big secret. Those types of people were few in number. The closest friend she ever had thus far was Soleil, and it could be argued that they weren't really friends at all; if she had to be technical, Nina would consider Soleil a frenemy more than anything else. What she did to help her return everything to their proper owners was a kind thing of her to do, but sometimes, the fights they'd have left her lying awake for days.

  
So what were these things about Nina that she favored hiding from the rest of her fellow comrades? In the truth of the matter, it was easy to figure out, if it wasn't already known; Nina had a thing for men. Well sculpted men at that. If the guy had a broad chest or thick arms from work, chances were she was going to end up following him around, gawking at him from afar. It really wasn't a secret, but even so, she never spoke of it. She loved to watch them work and toil away in the sun, tiring their massiveness; if they pushed themselves any harder, they'd surely be the most ripped men in all the castle. That's right, boys, work away, work away...

  
This was why the night after working all day in the smithy, there was an underlying air of irony floating about her tent (uncharacteristically empty because she hadn't stowed away any stolen material). She had sprawled over her mattress consisting of a few blankets, feeling her sore arms pulse with exhaustion. They had become noodles, sensitive enough to have her feel each of her heartbeats in the tips of her delicate fingers. At every odd interval, she'd groan at the sudden urge to roll over; she couldn't bring herself to do so much as budge, so she would have to deal with the discomfort or get over it.

  
She then wondered if running away really wasn't such a bad idea.

  
Leave it to a visitor, however, to break such a train if thought. It stuck its head in, completely uninvited, and heaved a subtle whisper.

  
"Pst. Hey. Flower. You awake?"

  
Nina's eyes opened, and, in no hurry, rage built inside of her. Though it was miserably tired, her leg bolted up to exact a kick on the intruder's face. It fell back, repelled from the tent, with a hiss.

  
"Knock first, Soleil!" she bellowed; afterwards, she would feel a flush creep across her face, wondering if the entire camp was going to come investigate her ruckus. Geez, if that were the case, Corrin wouldn't hesitate to get onto her even further... But that wasn't her utmost concern. Her utmost concern, quite obviously, was fixed on Soleil, who had slowly peeked back inside the tent with a groan.

  
"Oh, crap!" she grumbled. "This isn't Sophie's tent..."

  
"Yeah, you're one off." Nina growled back. "Try looking better next time; some people are trying to sleep."

  
Though it was difficult to see, Soleil ran a hand over her nose; it could be best assumed that blood spewed from their nostrils.

  
"S-Sorry, Nina." she muttered, only to pause and tilt her head back. An additional hiss sounded. "Man, that kick... That was a nasty kick... I think you've ruined my face forever. How am I going to look cute now?"

  
Rashly, Nina lowered her tense leg; it thumped against the pallet.

  
"I didn't mean to kick you that hard. My bad. Maybe next time you'll remember not to stick your head in people's tents without asking."

  
"Easier said than done." Soleil looked over at her. "It's hard to see out here, you know? I could've sworn this was Sophie's tent."

  
"It's not."

  
"I know that now. Say, for the record, I didn't see you at the bathhouse today; where were you? Not in the mood to see a bunch of cute girls? Nothing much happened in there, but still... A girl doesn't like to go long without bathing, doesn't she?"

  
Nina groaned then, finally forcing her arms and legs back into action; with a grunt, her aching belly brought her up, where she hunched her form. It was a good thing it was dark, otherwise her expression would have scared away her company.

  
"Corrin put me to work again." was all she had to say to have Soleil snort, then burst into a fit of cackles. It wasn't clear to Nina whether or not the laughter was mocking, but in the end, she wasn't a fan.

  
"Where at this time? Glad it wasn't in the kitchen, otherwise we would've been hungry again."

  
"The stupid forge. He put me to work with that smelly old man Gunter in the forge! Would you believe it? Do I look like forge material to you?"

  
Soleil laughed again.

  
"The smithy? I can't see you working in the smithy, Nina; not with how small you are. I have to say, though, I bet you must've looked really cute, all sweaty and working..." she paused then, giving her a mortified glance. "Wait... You worked in the smithy? You can't go in there for a second without getting covered in sweat. Not to mention every man that walks out of there smells like a barrel of garbage."

  
"Yeah? So what? You calling me a stinky man?"

  
"And you haven't bathed today?"

  
"I'm too tired to go to the bathhouse."

  
"Nina! For Pete's sake, you need to wash all that sweat off of you! Don't you know what happens when you don't bathe after working all day?"

  
"I don't know and I don't care."

  
"You get covered in red dots! They pop up everywhere on your skin... And worst of all, those red dots are the polar _opposite_ of cute."

  
Clearly disengaged, Nina rolled her eyes. With a simple motion backwards, she fell back onto her pallet, landing with a groan. Her arms sprawled out again, continuing to pulse with each dreaded heartbeat; for once, she wished her heart would stop just so she wouldn't have to feel it every other second.

  
"It's not like I talk to anyone anyways. Let me have the ugly bumps if it means I can go straight to bed."

  
" _I_ talk to you!" Soleil argued, breeching the entrance of the tent. She crawled over to the girl and set beside her, where her knees brushed against the other's thigh. "I can't allow this to happen; you may not be the cutest, but you definitely have your charms. I won't let you lose them! We're having a bath party, you and me; just us girlfriends."

  
"No we're not." she moaned.

  
"Yes we are."

  
"Not."

  
"Are."

  
"No."

  
"Yes."

  
"No."

  
"Yes."

  
"Yes."

  
Again, Nina's eyes bolted open, and a flush spread across her cheeks; that darn tongue of hers, getting all twisted up in the heat of another debate. She couldn't help but feel the rage bunch up inside her core, wailing like a tea kettle, threatening to erupt any second. Like earlier, it was good it was dark; not because Nina's expression would again scare Soleil away, but because Soleil's expression would have been the kickstarter of a nasty cat fight.

  
"Ehe... Hey Nina..."

  
"Shut up. I know what I said, but you know for a fact that I didn't mean it."

  
"I'm not so sure about that; some people lie about what they really want, y'know?"

  
At last, from Nina's lips came a discouraged growl, and she beat her fist against the ground. This would only go to disservice her, seeing that she released a howl the moment impact was made. Her body gave a quick jolt, and she rolled over quickly.

  
"Leave me alone, Soleil."

  
"Pleeease? If you go with me, I'll consider it as an apology for kicking my nose." her hand returned to the said wound, nursing it gently. "I really did hurt, you know..." though she said nothing, the latter breathed heavily; her legs had begun to pound by now, particularly her thighs, and almost gave the sensation tingling. Before long, she almost couldn't feel them at all. Taking notice of this, Soleil leaned over, then finally cracked another smile. "Aw, I see what's wrong; your muscles are all sore from work. Come on, the warm water'll help them relax; it works all the time for me after a long day of swinging a sword around."

  
Nina hesitated.

  
"Fine." she growled at last; it was music to the other's ears. "But you're carrying me there."

  
Delighted, perhaps overwhelmingly pleased with herself, Soleil brought herself up to her knees, then slapped her hands together.

  
"Not a problem, friend of mine." and she went to work, starting by wrapping her oddly strong palms around the latter's delicate wrists. She pulled her up effortlessly, then slung her arms and head over shoulder before tugging just a little further. She crawled out of the tent then, rising to her feet...

  
...Only to have Nina slide off her back and hit the ground with a thud. From there, she was still, gazing tiredly up at the moon with a sigh.

  
"You're not good at this." Nina growled from below, not even bothering to recover herself.

  
"My bad, my bad; fingers slipped."

"Liar."

  
"I am not!"

  
"Yes you are."

  
"Are not."

  
"Are too."

  
"No."

  
"Yes."

  
"No."

  
"Yes."

  
Then there was a pause, a pause which kept Nina on the ground, staring at her frenemy, whose face she could finally make out in the moonlight; that expression of hers seemed sincere enough, that is until she broke out into her trademark grin, cackling like a witch.

  
"Nice try, Nina. I'm better with words than you are, so I'm not letting my tongue slip like yours." she knelt down then, prepared to retrieve her, when she continued. "By the way, that was super funny."

  
That was when Nina was heavily considering to run away; just as soon as her muscles recovered, of course...

  
Having nobody out at the time of night it was, nothing much happened on the trek to the bathhouse. Perhaps the most interesting thing that occurred had Soleil almost run into a wall that camouflaged in the moonlight, but before that could happen, she released a laugh and turned to her right, continuing on her merry way. Nina was rather disengaged, being exhausted; she kept her face buried in Soleil's shoulders, breathing softly, poking the veil of sleep. Each time she started to take the plunge into the sweet land of dreams, Soleil would wake her up with chatter. For the most part, the chatter was stupid, mindless flapdoodle; it made Nina progressively more frustrated with each instance.

  
"Hmm. I wonder if I'll step on a snake out here; just a heads up, if we do run into a snake, it's every man for himself. I won't get away as quickly if I have you to lug around."

  
"Mmm... Kay..." she muttered in response.

  
To Nina's fortune, there slithered not a single serpent in their path, and at last they arrived at the source of light which was the bathhouse. Upon arriving, Soleil released a sigh, then took a deep breath.

  
"Ha! I can already smell that warm water." and she made her way inside; after venturing a little ways into the heart of the building, she plopped Nina, limp as a rag, down in a bench. Unresponsive, Nina didn't budge an inch to comfort herself; only when a towel smacked her face did she finally open her eyes. "I'm not your maid, so I'm not undressing you." Soleil paused. "I mean, unless you _really_ want me to..."

  
"Didn't you and Corrin talk about that?"

  
"Yeah, yeah; I'm working on it, okay? No offense, but I think I'm doing a lot better with my problems than you are." she flashed a wink; even after several years, Nina would never be able to decipher it.

  
Groaning all the way, she rose, sitting up on the bench with little structure; from there, she slowly began shedding. This was a process that was prolonged; it had Soleil, who had already sat herself in the water, peeking at every odd interval.

  
"The slower you do it, the weirder it looks." she commented, to which Nina curtly responded:

  
"The more you keep looking at me, the more I consider not being your friend anymore."

  
Needless to say, Soleil, who obviously thought her occasional glance went unnoticed, did not bother looking again.

  
It was a challenge for Nina to make the simple trek from the bench to the water; the gap between the two suddenly became a long, vast desert, littered by nothing but the countless grains of sand. Even though she was rather fond of the idea of dipping into a pool of warmth, the journey was slow and exhausting.

  
"Ow." she sounded with each step, wrapping herself in a towel along the way. "Ow ow ow ow ow owowowowowowow..." the dip that would lower her into the water would pose as the most menacing challenge of all; such a small step had become such a beast, impressively. She released one last howl as she lowered herself into the water, plopping down without any regard to grace. From there, she didn't bother migrating her favored corner; she sat still, uninspired to change.

  
Soleil, from a distance, gave her a hefty applause.

  
"Good job."

  
Slowly, Nina lowered herself against a wall, heaving a sigh; Soleil didn't lie, for the water did tone down her pain. It wasn't a huge difference, but at this point, any difference at all did not go unnoticed.

  
"Thanks... I guess." and she closed her eyes, sinking deep enough to hide her lips beneath the surface of the pool. Tiredly, she felt herself beginning to slip once again into a state of slumber. With the heat around her, almost seeming to penetrate her skin, it was a challenge to fight the urge. Nothing really seemed to matter anymore; if she started to drown and didn't wake up, she was sure Soleil would save her, and if she didn't... Well, she was sure she wasn't missing out on much. If anything, it would be a miracle to escape such devastating pain.

  
"Falling asleep on me already? I thought this was supposed to be a bath party! I mean, come on, how often do you get the whole bathhouse to yourself?" her neighbor would pause shortly afterwards. "Well, I guess you could come to the bathhouse every night for privacy... But how often do you get to come here with your friend Soleil, mm?"

  
It took a while for Nina to answer.

  
"Mmm. Yeah."

  
"Um... Yeah...?"

  
"Yeah."

  
"Is that all you're going to say to me?"

  
"Mmf." and she started to sink deeper; her nose would be submerged before long, and her eyes refused to open. When it was underwater for too long, Soleil at last took the initiative to wade closer to her, her face hardening. Where a smile always was, there was a concerned frown.

  
"Hey you." she sounded, seating herself beside her. "How long are you going to stick your nose in the water like that?" Nina wouldn't respond, though; as a matter of fact, she started to sink even lower, at last submerging her entire head. At that moment, the other gasped, then quickly reached into the water to retrieve her. She drug her head up with ease, but she was far too conerned to bother worrying about such a thing; the foremost thing she would take notice of was the coat of red that had spread across Nina's cheeks and forehead. Of course the warm bath water was a likely contributor to such a hue, but it was such a deep shade of crimson, she was convinced there was far more at play. That, evidently, made her shake the girl's body roughly. "Y-You're not funny if this is a joke." she murmured nervously. "Come on, Nina; wake up. What's wrong with you? You can't be this tired, a-are you?"

  
There remained only one explanation; she knew her judgement would be hindered thanks to soaking in the warmth which was the water, but she brought a hand to the girl's forehead. No matter how much she expected it, she never wanted it to be so: Nina's forehead was scorching hot.

 


	13. Nina and the Clouds

Nina didn't really have the ability to boast a good immune system...

  
...And chances are, she never would.

  
Nina was sick. Dreadfully sick. When Corrin received the news from the umpteenth mouth at breakfast, however, he rolled his eyes with a scoff; according to Gunter, Nina wasn't exactly the happiest of campers yesterday, and her work wasn't the sharpest. It wasn't odd for a sensible young man to suspect that a girl, who happened to be notorious for her sticky fingers, was playing a little game of hooky to get out her work. Then again, she _was_ telling the truth when she said she was a bad cook, but... Well, Corrin chose not to pay that detail any mind, for he was more than certain he would find her hiding somewhere in the mess hall at breakfast to eat, then run back over to her tent to rehearse her performance for when he came by for verification.

  
...The only thing was, he didn't see her at all in the mess hall, and neither did anyone else. Shigure hadn't seen her. Gunter hadn't seen her. Percy hadn't seen her. Heck, even Niles hadn't seen her; these were odd details that had him raise a brow, then choose to give the room one last scan. Eventually, his searching led him to Soleil, who sat next to her mother on the women's side of the hall.

  
"What, Nina? She's sick, haven't you heard? She's been cooped in that stuffy tent of her's since last night. I'm probably going to bring her lunch later today, so I'll know how she's doing then."

  
Well, Soleil was Nina's frenemy. Chances were, the friend side of their relationship had the potential to make them partners in crime. After all, rumor had it they went to the bathhouse last night, likely to cook up some sort of plan while they had their privacy. As much as he wanted to, Corrin couldn't believe her, so he had no choice but to investigate the matter himself; become the Nohrian Inquisitor, as Selena often called him.

  
He departed from the mess hall that fine morning, stepping out into the early dew; it was too bad he wouldn't get to enjoy it for long, for he would soon find himself before a tent, just as uniform as the others. He knelt down then, prepared to brush away the entrance flap as he cleared his throat.

  
"Nina." he called. "It's Corrin. May I come in?"

  
When he received no answer, he took the opportunity to peek inside. Nina was there, as expected, sprawled out over her pallet. It was perhaps the only time he had seen her hair down, but on the flip side, it was also the first time he had seen it so terribly oily. Why, if anything, it looked like a matted rat's nest. Likewise applied to her entire bed; blankets bunched up on one side balanced the blankets bunched up on the other, and her face was buried in a pillow. Though it was slight, his eyes captured a slither of her cheek, cherry red.

  
Hmm. She did look pretty sick after all... But he couldn't just leave it at that. He had to be absolutely sure, otherwise he ran the risk of being played like a fiddle. Thus, he crawled his way inside, seating himself beside her laying form before giving her face a quick poke. That didn't seem to rouse her, so he resorted to more extreme measures: flicking a cheek, gradually growing more forceful. The fifth time evoked a groan from her lips, but her eyes didn't open; instead, she rolled over to smother her face completely.

  
"Nina." a mewl, muffled, answered from the pillow. "I need you to wake up." another sound was his response, except he couldn't figure out what sort of noise it was. Either way, it didn't stop him from placing his hands over her shoulders and lifting her up; he turned her over, then tried to sit her upwards, only to have her fall back down, having no structure. "Nina, if you're playing hooky, you know you'll be in big trouble."

  
At last, olive green eyes peered from behind her eye lids, gazing at him, glassy and dull... Perhaps empty, even.

  
"Hi, Corrin." she rasped. "Good morning."

  
"Hey. Rumor has it you're sick."

  
She looked up to the ceiling of her tent, then allowed her eyes to roll into the back of her head; for a good while, she remained frighteningly still.

  
"Mmm... Yeah..." she felt a hand set itself on her forehead, then her cheek again. Upon removing it, Corrin heaved a heavy sigh; perhaps it was a pinch over exaggerated, but it seemed that Nina was far too sick to even care.

  
"Seems like something's going around camp. Arthur just got over a cold a few days ago, now it looks like you've got it." he frowned. "Sorry to see that. Is there anything I can do for you?"

  
Though delayed, Nina did return to him with a slight nod.

  
"Yeah. Don't make me go to the smithy again. See? This is what happens when I go to the smithy; I tried to warn you, but you didn't listen to me."

  
"Rest assured; you're not going anywhere today." he started to rise then, prepared to depart. "I'll have Midori bring you some medicine, does that sound agreeable?"

  
"Mmm... Yeah..."

  
It was pretty obvious that Nina was sick when everything that inspired her seemed to suddenly become worthless. It was that bad. Not too long after Corrin had left, she heard voices passing by her little tent, and they were noises that should have been music to her ears: laughter. Not just any laughter; it was the laughter of two young men chatting each other up like all was well with the world. She knew that getting up to go look would require... Well, getting up, which, at the moment, felt like quite the chore. Her passion had been sapped out of her, leaving her as nothing but a dry shell just waiting for revival.   
The possibility of revival came with Midori, who was the next person to crawl into her tent; in doing so, she lugged a heavy trunk behind her, eventually pulling it up to her side.

  
"Hello, hello, dear patient of mine; the doctor is in." Nina was too exhausted to respond and far too fixed on trying to get the constant chills to subside. "Ooh, yikes, too sick to talk; sounds like a nasty sickness you got there."

  
Nina sniffled.

  
"Mmm... Yeah..."

  
"Put your worries to rest then; I'm sure I've got just the remedy." and with that said, she popped open the trunk and proceeded to dig. With all the variety of noises going on inside, it was anybody's guess as to what she kept in there, but it wasn't anybody's will to see if their guesses were true. Had Nina not been so terribly immobilized, she and her prying eyes wouldn't have hesitated to take a peek for the sake of quenching that undying curiosity of hers... But it was obvious what she did instead, and for some reason, she was perfectly fine with it.

  
After a while of pushing things aside, Mirdori at last fished out a small glass jar; inside was a suspicious looking plant. Then again, any plant one couldn't identify appeared suspicious to a certain degree. Sure, for the most part, it looked normal, but there was something about the shape of the leaves... They just weren't something she could trust.

Midori seemed to trust them, however, so it didn't matter what Nina thought.

  
"Okay, this is a powerful, powerful herb, so I'm only going to give you a little; I'm only giving you a little because weird things happen if you take too much."

  
"...What's it called?"

  
"Mmm... Not quite sure, but I've seen it in action, and I have to say, I was _very_ impressed by its performance." she gave her a grin as she pried off the lid. "And trust me, not a whole lotta things impress me when it comes to medicine. Your cure is as good as guaranteed!" she reached inside then, fishing out one small stem; initially, Nina figured that was her dose, but she was proven wrong when Mirdori proceeded to rip it into tiny shreds, one of which she carefully selected, then brought to her mouth. "Open wide! Aaaaand chew."

  
It would be lying if Nina said she thought the herb tasted good; if anything, she thought it tasted awful. It reminded her of milk almost, a taste that made it to her list of hate, and when that taste went away, it magically transformed into a leaf of cabbage. The strength of it made her gag, then hack until her face had become even more red.

  
"This is-"

  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there; hold your horses. I know it doesn't taste good, but trust me, you'll be glad you took it. A minute of a bad taste is better than a day of misery, isn't it?"

  
"I don't know."

  
"Okay, okay; just to let you be aware, there's something about this herb you need to know. The side effects aren't many, but they're definite, so be on the look out for them."

  
Nina's eyes widened.

  
"S-Side effects?" she echoed, terrified.

  
"Oh, don't be a worry wart about it; they aren't that big of a deal. You might see a few things that aren't there and maybe have the tendency to do stuff you normally wouldn't do, but it doesn't last long enough to have you doing something you'd regret. Don't worry." as she began packing back up, Nina combatted the pain her muscles, fighting to bring herself up.

  
"Wait a minute, what's going to happen?"

  
"I told you; you have nothing to worry about!" Midori began dragging her trunk out of the tent then. "Just remember: if you see a flying man, don't follow him!"

  
And she was gone.

  
Up next to visit Nina was, surprisingly, her father, who brought breakfast along with him. As surprising as such an event was, that wasn't the only surprising thing that befell upon that day; the second unusual event occurred when Niles brushed aside the flap, peeking his head inside.

  
"Nina." he rung. "Hope you're decent."

  
And he'd find Nina laying there on her pallet, and her hand shot up into the air to wave at him.

  
"Hey, daddy!" she chirped.

  
Niles couldn't help it; he felt a brow raise quickly, and he almost hesitated to crawl inside.

  
"Whoa. It's been a while since I heard you call me that. Drink your happy juice this morning?"

  
"Nope! Midori brought her cool box of maaaaaagic."

  
Ever so slowly, the man eased closer to her; with time, he eventually ended up beside her, but no matter how close he was, he never really felt close to her. Nina seemed to be in a completely different world, not in her little tent in the midst of an astral plane. Her pupils were wide and large, larger than what Niles would call normal, and she bore the stupidest smirk on her lips, all cocky-like.

  
"Is that so?" he echoed hesitantly, then took the moment to hand her a knapsack containing a pair of biscuits; when it took forever for her to reach out and receive it from him, he gave up and decided to set it on her belly. "I brought you leftovers from the mess hall."

  
The sight made her chuckle.

  
"I don't believe you, daddy; bringing me breakfast... You've never done that for me before. Hehe. Geez, I'm flattered."

  
"Good to hear..." Niles leaned closer, observing her face. "Are you feeling alright?"

  
"Never been better. Hehe." she reached up and set her hand on the back of his head, applying what pressure her weakened state could muster. "You know... When you have your head over mine like that... Hehe... It feels like you're trying to be my Prince Charming. Come here." and she started to press harder. Strangely enough, the force was a force Niles actually struggled to resist, and that wasn't a good thing; he was being pushed down towards a puckered pair of lips.

  
"N-Nina?" his single eye widened, and he started to struggle. Ultimately, though, she somehow overpowered him. To his relief, his lips didn't clash with hers as he theorized it would; no, she shoved him over to the side just a smidgen, then planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. The moment she parted from him, she was howling in a fit of laughter, covering her eyes with an arm.

  
"Ha ha ha! You thought I was going to kiss you on the lips! Ha! I don't know who on this forsaken earth would want to do that!"

  
Frowning, Niles quickly pulled back from her and began wiping the kiss off his cheek.

  
"Your mother's done worse." he replied.

  
"Ha ha ha! Well she's a weirdo anyways, so who's surprised here?" she slapped a hand on his thigh before slowing her breath, ending her episode with a curt sigh. She then gazed absently at the ceiling, smirking oddly. The sight was enough to have Niles cross his arms and furrow his brows.

  
"Okay. Something's wrong with you."

  
"Nuh uh."

  
"I'm not about to argue with you the same way you do with that friend of yours. Start by telling me what it is you're high on. You didn't get into those bushes in the woods outside the castle, did you?"

  
"How about..." he sat herself up, turned her back to him, then leaned against his front; her head rested deeper against his chest as she nestled herself into comfort. "...You spend some time with me?"

  
"Yep. Something's definitely wrong."

  
"Hey hey, daddy, do you remember when you used to come visit me in the Deeprealms? When it was night time, after my hair was dry from a bath, you'd sit on my bed and braid my hair. Remember? Remember? I miss it when you used to do that. So? Why don't you braid my hair for me? Hmm?"

  
Niles' eye squinted, and his gaze wandered awkwardly to the side.

  
"I don't know... You're not really in the appropriate state of mind, it looks like..."

  
"Oh come oooooooon, daddy. Pleeeeeeeease?" 

"Maybe some other time; when whatever you're on's worn off sounds ideal."

  
"But I'm not on anything."

  
"Don't argue with me, Nina."

  
"Fine."

  
Niles rolled his eyes, gently set her back down on her pallet, then slowly started to back out of the tent; the entire time, he feared what may happen should he take his eyes off of her.

  
"Rest for a while, Nina; I'll come check on you every now and then. Stay here, got that? You're in no shape to be wandering around camp."

  
Well, only a an idiot would think that was going to happen.

  
And thus, most likely because she was told not to, Nina found herself wandering around camp, all with a dazed look in her eyes and a goofy smile spread across her lips. Nobody paid much mind to her like usual, and, likewise, she didn't pay much mind to them either. Her sauntering emerged aimless, having no place to go, so she decided to visit the first building she saw; that building, chosen at random, would be the accessory shop. That was precisely where she skipped her merry way towards.  
The shop's doors, once calm and unsuspecting, suddenly burst open, vomiting inside a limp girl. The noise was enough to disrupt the peace of the shopkeeper, a small mage, Nyx, who was once engrossed in a novel; with her stern eyes, she looked up, unprepared to give her customer a humble greeting.

  
"Haven't you considered the feelings of the door?" she grumbled, bookmarking her novel and slamming it shut. "Be happy I'm still willing to give you business." Nina, seeming to not have heard a word the woman said, stopped at the counter, then slammed her elbows on its surface; from there, she propped her chin upon her fist, giving Nyx a studious observation. Regardless, Nyx wasn't impressed. "Are you going to buy something or what?"

  
"Mmm... Yeah. Don't you know you're supposed to give your customer time to think? That's what Corrin told me when I took my first shift here, and boy was it weeeeeeird."

"I'm not here to hold conversations with you, child."

  
"Have I told you about that one time I was working here? Hehe. I was all alone, hadn't had a customer in hours, so I took the liberty of stuffing a few pieces of merchandise in my bag. That town full of poor people back in the Deeprealms would have been ecstatic over those things, hmm?"

  
Nyx leaned forward, giving her a cold stare.

  
"May I take that as a confession to robbery?"

  
"Mmhm."

  
"Thank you. I'll be sure to let Corrin know."

  
"Hehe. Suuuuuuuuuuuure thing, but he'll probably make me work in that sweaty forge again. That's fine. I'm just going to run away anyways." she finally became silenced then, but only because she was captivated by Nyx's head piece: a metal crown decorated by sharp thorns. Strangely enough, Nina had the bravery to reach out and take it from her head. With it in her hands, she observed it closely, eventually cracking another smile. "Ooh, nice hat."

  
"That isn't a hat, fool." Nyx snatched it back before she could put it on. "It is what is called a sorcerer's circlet, something only worn by those who practice with tomes. We sell them anyways, since I suppose there is no longer such a thing that is sacred anymore. Because I hold the tradition with high reverence, I do not sell any to those I know do not meet the requirements. You are included in that group."

  
"Hey, hey, now; I can do all that magic mumbo-jumbo you're going about. Hehe. I can shoot a shining bow like nobody's business."

  
"Magic weapons do not count."

  
"Sure they do."

  
"I stand by my statement."

  
"Do too."

  
Nyx heaved a sigh, then opened her book once more, returning to where her placeholder rested; in doing so, she grumbled angrily.

  
"I'm not going to lower myself to your childish level. I've seen that look you have in your eyes before in others; you're under the influence of something, so I won't hold anything against you personally. Until you return to your proper state of mind, I want you out of my shop."

  
"But I have money."

  
"You can't bribe me." she replied, beginning to read. "Whatever you have to offer is probably stolen anyways. Depart."

  
So Nina left, bound to wander off and bother other people.

  
This next encounter would be brief; she found Laslow in the midst of her mindlessness. He seemed to be having a shallow conversation with Keaton, and shallow conversations just so happened to be one of the only types of socialization Nina could engage in. Seeing an opportunity so ripe, she couldn't resist prancing up to the two.

"Hi, Mister Laslow." 

Laslow smiled.

  
"Ah, here's a lass with a good head on her shoulders." he turned to Keaton then. "I'm sure she can tell you; wouldn't you say that I am a gentleman?" he motioned to reenforce Nina's attention. "This man here has the nerve to disagree."

  
Nina paused, squinting her eyes; she looked at Laslow, then she looked at Keaton.

Laslow.

Keaton.

Laslow.

Keaton.

The cogs in her head started to turn ever so slowly, but with time, they picked up on speed. At last, she shrugged, then started circle them.

  
"Eh. I'm not feeling it. You two don't have a good enough chemistry; you're just simply not meant to be."

  
Laslow also paused, gazing at her strangely.

  
"Erm... Excuse me?"

  
"You and Keaton." she answered, prepared to find something better to do. "You guys just don't have what it takes to be a thing. Sorry." and she wandered off, only escaping with one lazy comment: "By the way, you're a great dancer. I'm a total fan."

  
Left behind, Laslow and Keaton watched her stride elsewhere, branded by the faces of confusion. After a while, Keaton finally turned to the other, raising half of his lip.

  
"Dancing?" he echoed, peering at Laslow's face; he had turned redder than blood.

  
"I-I have no idea what she's talking about." he too went away, going his own direction alone.

  
Up next was Percy's tent, which she admittedly went out of her way to get to. Under normal circumstances, she would have gave the entrance flap a quick kick or two for the sake of giving inhabitants privacy, but today happened to not be under normal circumstances. As a result, she plunged right in inside like she owned the place.

  
"Heeeeey, Percy."

  
Percy, originally minding his own business, gave way to a squeak and a jump as he turned around. When he found her, however, he relaxed a bit, then heaved a sigh; a hand went to his chest, hoping to slow its furious beating.

  
"Geez, Nina; you sure are sneaky. I didn't even hear you come in!"

  
"Hehe. Maybe you're just hard at hearing."

  
"Ha! You could be right, but you are a thief after all. Isn't it essential to be sneaky?"

  
"Hehe. Yeah."

  
Percy turned around, crossing his legs Indian style as he looked at her with a smile; his curious eyes widened excitedly.

  
"So what can I do for you?"

  
"Mmm... Nothing much, really; I just came to talk, y'know?"

  
"That's great! I've been meaning to talk to you sometime and all, but I heard you got the same thing Pop had a while ago, so I decided not to bother you. It's good to see you uh..." he trailed off, indefinite, once he finally received a better look at her face; it was dangerously red, and her pupils seemed rather... Unnatural. It was enough to have him frown and furrow his brows. "Hey, are you okay? You look like you're still sick..." he lifted his hand, then set it on her cheek; he quickly retracted it once he felt its heat, concern written in his face. "Holy smokes! You're burning up! It doesn't look like you've gotten better at all, so what're you doing out? You should be back at your tent!"

  
Nina chuckled again, then reached over to a small table, where she removed a small trinket; it was a piece of metal shaped into a wyvern with features strikingly similar to Ace. She tossed it up, then caught it, all with a particularly satisfied look in her eyes.

  
"Nice thing you got here." she murmured. "How much is it worth? I'm sure if I took it, it could fetch enough money to feed someone who needs food... Maybe someone like Finn. Oh! Finn I'm sorry!"

  
Percy quickly retrieved the trinket from her hands, replacing it on his table before drawing closer.

  
"It's priceless- to me at least; Mom and Pop gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago." he felt a brow anchor. "Say, Nina? Are you okay? Who's Finn?"

  
One could only imagine the surprise which was he when tears welled in the girl's eyes; she sniffled before throwing herself on his small body, bursting into a fit of wails.

  
"Finny! I'm so sorry! Can you hear me Finny? I'm sorry I couldn't make it in time! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

  
"Nina!" he struggled beneath her weight, but managed to keep her upright. Even so, she hunched over, continuing to bawl. "What's gotten into you?"

  
"I didn't have any food, Percy; it didn't have any money, I didn't have any food, I didn't have any blankets...! It's all my fault!" she tore away from him, then snatched the trinket again before hightailing it away, leaving only dust in her wake. She was fast, so the idea of chasing her was intimidating. Regardless, Percy went after her, tripping as he tried to scramble out of his tent.

  
"Nina! Nina, wait! What's wrong?"

  
The camp would be surprised to see a crowd was beginning to form, and this particular crowd was growing larger and larger. Initially, upon first glance, the typical on-looker would smile and assume there was a party going on... But the moment one drew near, they would immediately be greeted by the punch of a negative air. Angry faces surrounded one another, their arms crossed as they grumbled back and forth.

  
"Yes; the girl just walked into my tent and took some of my most treasured pieces of jewelry and heirlooms, even though it was broad daylight. Has she lost her mind?" one, a frustrated Camilla, said in the midst of the chatter.

  
"She took one of my favorite treasures; it was the hilt of a broken sword, and it was just the perfect size and shape... And the jagged blade broken off at the end of it! It was to die for! I'm going to tear her to pieces when I see her again, I don't care if we were friends."

  
"And my linchpin! She took it right from my suit and somehow ran off before I could catch her. As much as I hate to admit it, the girl is ridiculously fast..."

  
"She took my necklace."

"My boots."

  
"My ring."

  
"My satchel... Again."

  
Amongst the chatter, Percy weaved through the crowd, trying to snatch attention, but his voice would be drowned out by the collective mutters of others. He shouted, but it wasn't enough, so he pushed his lungs to shout the loudest he could. When that didn't work, he finally resorted to his last option: his imitation of the call of a wyvern.

  
...Needless to say, that got everyone to be quiet.

  
"G-Guys! Something's wrong with Nina..."

  
"Darn right there is!" agreed a distant voice. "She's runnin' around stealing stuff quicker than a greedy pack rat!"

  
"Indeed, Percy." an obviously upset Xander emerged from the crowd, looking down at the boy. "You're friends with her, are you not? Where has she run off to?"

  
Percy cowered beneath the might of the man, shrugging timidly.

  
"I-I don't know; she made off with something of mine too... I think I was the first victim of this little spree of hers.. She was acting really weird. Well, weirder than normal, at least."

  
"So you don't know where she is?"

  
"No."

  
That was all it took to have the angry chatter rise once again, all of which were craving for the sight of a certain young thief. They wouldn't find her, though; she was elsewhere, in a certain private quarters, setting down her sack of loot before going to rummage through the room- Corrin's room to be more exact. She first went to the bookshelf, gathering whatever appealed to her like a squirrel preparing for winter, and made constant trips back to her bag to deposit them. At the fourth trip to the bookshelf, where she began to search through the top floor, a hand gripped her shoulder.

  
"Nina." a voice grumbled. If she were in her own mind, she would have cared; she didn't, though, and continued with her work. As a result, the grip became even more stern. "Nina, turn around and look at me."

  
She obeyed for a change, meeting the fuming expression of Corrin. Little surprise was on her face, but that didn't mean it was undecorated... In fact, it was soaking wet, drenched by tears.

  
"Wh-What do you need?" she asked sadly.

  
"I hope you have a good reason why you're in my room putting all my stuff in a bag."

  
She sniffled.

  
"Yeah." she nodded. "I need money."

  
"Why?"

  
"For Finn. Finn's hungry. If I don't get any money, he won't make it through the winter, so I need to get something I can sell."

  
Corrin's frown deepened, and he eased closer, observing her face with prejudice. With his eyes remaining cold, his lips eased open.

  
"Who's Finn?" he inquired sternly; it was a question that left no choice but to answer, which Nina quickly did.

  
"He's a little boy that lives in the poor village."

  
"What poor village?"

  
"The one next to my house. Finn doesn't have any family, so he needs someone to take care of him. He's such a sweet little boy- he doesn't deserve to starve." she turned around then, starting to go back to her own business before her shoulder was gripped again. Corrin heaved a heavy sigh.

  
"Where are you, Nina?"

  
She didn't turn around.

  
"Father explained it as a pocket in the astral plane or something; he called it a Deeprealm, so I guess I'll call it that too since I don't have any better names." she sniffled again, hinting at an unclear nose. "I have to hurry, so I can't talk. Winter's almost here."

  
"It's spring." Corrin turned her around despite her resistance. "And you're not in the Deeprealms." 

  
"Y-Yes I am."

  
"Nina." he growled sternly. "If you're playing some sort of game with me, this isn't funny."

  
"I-I'm not playing any g-games." another sniffle. "F-Finn said he wanted to play a game when I got back to town anyways, so I don't have the time." she wrestled out of his grasp, then began to slowly make her way back to her sack, unaware of the fact that he followed her. She kept on in her own little world as she took her bag and slung it over her shoulder, and off she went, aiming for the door.

  
"Where are you headed next?"

  
"I'm going to the market." she replied as she reached out for the handle; she turned it without any issues, but stumbled in her walk out. Corrin was able to catch her back, steadied her, then set her free to continue walking. Regardless, he kept on after her, even when she didn't bother trying to flee from his presence. "Someone'll buy all this junk; hopefully by then I'll have enough to give him a nice, warm meal." she began huffing as she made her way across the vast lawn of the castle, and her footsteps grew heavier. Concerned, Corrin weaved his way to her side.

  
"You don't look well." he murmured. "Quite obviously, you're still sick."

  
"Sick or not..." she breathed deeply. "...I need to get Finn some food. I can always rest later."

  
"Nina. You're delusional."

  
"No I'm... Not." she stopped to gasp for air, her body trembling. "I'm perfectly fine. Perfectly. Fine. Fine. Fine. Perfectly..." and she collapsed then and there, laying motionlessly on the sweet green grass. Having seen the entire event unfold, Corrin watched suspiciously, waiting for her to pounce right back up and give way to a hearty laugh. He was sure she was pulling his leg, very sure... But as more time went on, that sureness began to dissipate, replaced with worry.

  
He knelt beside her, trying to shake her awake. No matter how hard he tried, though, she was just as motionless as before.

 


	14. Nina and the Pardon

Nina was caring.

  
Few had the privilege of seeing such a side of her, but it was there nonetheless. It didn't matter how odd, borderline questionable, her hobbies may have been; her heart was solid gold... But solid gold had the tendency to get heavy.

  
A heavy heart...

  
She had one, no matter how hard she tried to flee from it. As quick on her feet as she was, it was the single thing she could not escape; if she did somehow, she wouldn't have long to rest before it caught up again, and the cycle would just start all over. She was tender, so she could not sustain much damage before she'd collapse.

  
She almost collapsed.

  
This instance occurred when she woke up from what seemed like a long era of slumber; her bed was much more comfy than she recalled, so it made her sleep even longer... But it wouldn't last too long. Being the hypersensitive, she awoke shortly after noticing this change, unsettled, almost panicked. When she lifted her head, she would not find the plain sheets that covered her pallet; no, what she saw was an unfamiliar comforter, crimson as blood. She blinked a time or two, patting it awkwardly. It didn't take long before she felt a pounding headache barge in, completely unwelcome; with a hiss, she clutched her skull, releasing a moan.

  
"Still out of it?" asked a voice; that voice, of course, would be Corrrin's, mellow and calm. For a moment, her heart caught fire, and she whipped around. She found him there, sitting at his table, drinking from a quaint cup of tea as he observed her. Almost immediately then, she looked down; yup, she was in his room, sitting on his bed.

  
"Gah!" she hollered. "Wh-What am I doing here?" her eyes widened, and she distanced herself from him further. _"And what did you do to me?"_

  
Corrin set down his cup, very collective in fashion.

  
"It's good to see you're back to normal. You fell down, so I took you to the best place I could think of."

  
"I fell down?" she echoed, mortified.

  
"Yes. You fell down."

  
"What do you mean I fell down? I've been asleep in my tent. You know? Since I'm _sick_."

  
Corrin eyed her strangely, eventually sighing and shaking his head; the motion, in itself, was particularly mysterious.

  
"I guess you don't remember; it seems that Mirdori's medicine had a few more side effects than what we would have wanted. You were wandering around camp completely out of your mind."

  
She gasped then, terrified, and her sore muscles tensed; the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand, tingling at their ends.

  
"Oh no..." she whispered, stunned. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no! Please don't tell me I did anything I'm going to regret! Wha-What happened? I didn't go around stealing anything, did I? Please don't tell me I-" she gasped, cupping her hands over her mouth. "Pl-Please don't tell I read passages out of my stories to everyone..."

  
"Nothing quite like that..." Corrin felt a blush begin to creep across his face, but was able to push it away in time. "You did get almost half the army out for your head, though."

  
She buried her face in her palms then, huffing and puffing until she grew dizzy; she furiously shook her head in the meantime.

  
"For what?" she was almost too afraid to ask.

  
"You went on a stealing spree." he leaned back in his chair. "At an impressive speed, I've been told. When I found you here in my room, you told me you needed money for someone... A boy named Finn, I believe?"

  
He noticed a change in her body language; even though she was never relaxed in the first place, it was certain that she wasn't now. She became visibly tight, her huffing drawing to a pause. As she relieved her hands from her face, keeping her head hung, though, she slung her feet over the side of the bed. After a while of hesitation she slid off, her bare toes gracefully touching the floor without so much as a sound.

  
"Oh... Finn..." she echoed as she approached him. Before his sitting form, she knelt, clenching her fists at her sides. "C-Corrin, I'm sorry for the trouble. I'm... I'm a real handful, aren't? And I'm probably not worth all of it. I'd be better off going back to my Deeprealms; there I can cause as much trouble as I want and you won't have to worry about getting involved..."  
Corrin's silence was her answer, for the most part at least. His face remained unfriendly, serious even, and his gaze was solemn. Slowly, he shook his head.

  
"We all have our problems, and we just have to deal with them." he replied softly.

  
"Thanks... For the reassurance, but I..." she backed away, hoping to make it to the door. "I should leave."

  
"Why so?"

  
"Because."

  
"Because why?"

  
"I'm in no condition to talk right now." when she arrived at the door, however, she didn't place her hand on the knob; instead, to her audience's surprise, she set her searing forehead against it, leaning miserably.

  
"Your mood has certainly dropped, hasn't it? Does it have something to do with this Finn character?" she didn't have the strength in herself to open her lips, so she nodded subtly, grinding her bangs against the wooden door. "Why don't you come talk to me about it?"

  
"I can't." her voice cracked. "I'm not very keen when it comes to talking about him."

  
"If you do, I'll consider pardoning you from punishment for all the trouble you've caused lately." Corrin crossed a leg over the other; deep down, confidence hid itself in his gaze. "You have my word."

  
A breeze picked up outside.

  
"He was a boy." she said simply.

  
"From a poor village in the Deeprealms, you told me."

  
She nodded softly.

  
"Y-Yeah. Not much older than six or seven, he didn't know what to tell me... His family died from an epidemic that broke out in his village. A mother, a father, two older brothers... He didn't have anyone to go to except me. I'll never forget it, the way he approached me one day when I was delivering some money to another family. We weren't super close but... I felt a connection to him. No mother or father or brothers or sisters... We were a lot more alike than I first realized, so I couldn't help myself from feeling responsible for him. I told him never to worry, because I was going to make sure he had what he needed to survive. He put all his trust in me."

  
Corrin's gaze sunk.

  
"And then winter came." he injected.

  
Another nod.

  
"He didn't quite make it." she fought to maintain the lump in her throat. "The local duke noticed that his stuff was disappearing, so he hired a bunch of guards to patrol his mansion. There was no way I could have made it inside without the help of a team, which I didn't have. There was nothing I could do for Finn besides hold him as he slipped away."

  
Silence followed.

  
It was a deadly sort of silence. A lonely silence, even though they were just steps away from one another. A painful silence, icy cold, pricking at the surface of their skin and slowly sinking into their meat. It made Corrin wish to squirm, but had no inspiration to comply. All he did was stare at her, watching as she kept her back to him, smothering her face on the door.  
He decided to stand, making his way quietly to her side. Even once he arrived, she didn't turn to receive him; no, she remained frozen as she was, quivering slightly.

  
"Nina." he murmured. "Can you look at me please?"

  
Force was required; she lifted her head slowly, sliding her heavy gaze over to him. What she would find, however, was a hand; his hand, stretched out and offered, asking for hers.

  
"What?" she murmured.

  
"I'd like to shake your hand." he said simply; it caused her to frown, brows sinking.

  
"What for?"

  
"I think that you have a very noble heart, Nina, so I would be honored to shake your hand."

  
Her eyes wandered away, heading for the floor; it was the floor she gazed at for a while, breathing softly.

  
"Not this heart." she grumbled. "I'm a horrible person, always going around causing problems."

  
"Whatever you think, I stand by my beliefs nonetheless; I've watched and listened to you long enough, and I've reached that decision on my own with nobody affecting it." his gaze, hard, pulled her own up to him, and for a while, they did nothing but stare. "Even though stealing is wrong, there isn't a lick of selfishness in you. It's an honor to have you in my army, and I couldn't replace you with anyone. How can I prove that to you?"

  
The solemn mood dropped.

  
Nina's eyes narrowed; it wasn't exactly in an angry sense... It was more devious than anything else, frighteningly. A sly grin spread slowly across her lips as she stared at him; a blush spread across her lips.

  
"Well, I do have some means of being convinced..." she trailed off.

  
Unsure, Corrin's eyes also narrowed, but for completely different reasons than hers.

  
"Okay... What's one of them?"

  
"I would like to see you and your friend Silas..."

  
"Doing what."

  
"...Sharing an cream cone."

  
When silence settled between them once more, she was pretty sure her wish wasn't coming true; with a tear of sweat slipping down her temple, Nina gave him a toothy grin, her brows raised nervously. She fought the urge to release a weak laugh. Corrin, on the other hand, maintained a hard gaze. Slightly rough, he set a hand on her shoulder, then released a sigh; he reached over, set his hand on the knob, then eased the door open.

  
"Alright, Nina..." he murmured. "It's time for you to get back to your tent. Watch your step on the way."

  
Awkwardly, Nina slowly made her way out, occasionally peeking over her shoulder.

  
"So are we down for the deal?" she asked hopefully, only to have her aspirations crash and burst into flames. Corrin simply shook his head.

  
"No." and he shut the door.


	15. Nina and Her Family

It was reasonable for Nina to believe she was alone. Anyone with a head on their shoulders could see, and sympathize with, her reasons. She wasn't lonesome because she wanted to be a lone wolf such as the likes of Velouria. No. Nina loved company, though she may not have acted nor looked it.

  
The Deeprealms left its mark on her. Her father was absent. Her mother was absent. Friends were few in number. It was natural that she favored the shadows and corners. After all, they were all that extended its hand to her. They were what raised her. They were what comforted her. They were what conformed her into the girl she was to this day.

  
Every bird, however, was bound to spread its glorious wings and depart from the nest. Her time was drawing nigh, and the sun was preparing for slumber; it became her friend, for it lingered over the horizon to give her just enough time in the light.

  
She emerged from her tent one nippy morning. Her body demanded that she shiver in order to warm herself more than huffing into her hands would do. That same shivering body gave way to a long stretch before she hunched over, eyes dulling. The grayness of the sky deadened what would otherwise be excitement.

  
She should've been excited.

  
Instead of skipping to the beat of a quickening heart, she simply furrowed her brows and closed her eyes. Wordless, she guided herself through the maze of tents that was camp, making her way to the very edge of its boundaries. The lake was there, and it was before it she came to a pause. When she found a spot that wasn't wet, she seated herself at its bank.

  
And she stayed there.

  
When she peered into the stillness of the water, the tranquility, she found herself looking down at the void sky. Another person met her. It was an interesting looking girl. She had pale skin. Olive green eyes. Long hair, wavy from being woven into tight laces. A grim, collected expression.

  
Nina found Nina the exact way she had last seen her.

  
"Hmf. I don't _look_ any older today." she muttered softly to herself. The other girl mimicked her. Was it because she was mocking her? Or was it a sign of reverence? Whether she knew or not, she reached out to cup that face with a delicate palm. Her fingers spread across the plains of her soft cheeks; the chilliness was turning them a light shade of blue.

  
When that hand departed from its friend, her eyes wandered down the ground upon which she sat. Those eyes landed on a decent sized rock, moist from the water that occasionally assaulted its skin. Nina hospitably took it, therefore saving it from the harassment of the still tranquility. She stared at it. Its bottom was muddy and slimy. Its surface glistened beneath what little sunlight could peek through the dreariness of the sky. The roughness of its outside almost drove her away.

  
"Hello, Mr. Rock." she said.

  
"Hi, Nina." Mr. Rock replied.

  
"How're you doing today?"

  
"I'm fine. I think Mr. Hay and I are hitting it off well. We have a date later on today."

  
"That's good."

  
"How about you?"

  
"Fine myself. Today's my birthday."

  
"Oh, happy birthday then, Nina."

  
"Thanks. You're the only person who's said that today."

  
"You poor thing."

  
"I know."

  
"You know what else you know? You know it's pitiful that you're sitting here talking to a rock and feeling sorry for yourself."

  
"You're right."

  
"You must be going crazy."

  
"Probably..." she was in tears at that point, feeling them roll down her cheeks and drip off her nose. One landed on Mr. Rock's no-so-delicate outside and slid to his bottom. The moment the tear tapped against the ground then after, she felt her grip on his body tighten. Rage began to build inside of her as she clamped her teeth together, then rise to her feet. "If you're right, then I should get rid of you!" she wound her hand back, pivoted her hip, and mustered as much strength she could summon. Away Mr. Rock flew when her hand zoomed forward and sent him from her fingers. Just seconds later, he disappeared into the lake with a plunk and never resurfaced. Standing in the wake of the murder, Nina heaved, only to have her face soften seconds later. "Uh oh. Mr. Hay isn't going to be happy with me for doing that..."

  
The criminal fled from the scene of the crime, constantly checking to make sure there were no witnesses.

  
Nina spent the majority of her day wandering around camp. It was, without even the slightest pinch of exaggeration, completely deserted. Not a soul was there, including town. At first, the sight spooked Nina, for it made her stand still in the cold and observe her surroundings oddly. She blinked a time or two before continuing to explore, where she was met with the same sight as she had been met with for a good while. Before long, queerness lost the battle to fear, for she was soon running desperately around camp until the back of her throat was dry and sore. She peeked in her head into the mess hall, which was completely dark and unused. Every shop did not have a clerk (she would have seized the opportunity to snag a few goods, but now wasn't the time). Nobody was sleeping in their tents. Even Corrin wasn't in his quarters, for no soul was there to answer when she knocked.

  
Where was everyone? Had they marched into a battle and left her behind? How was it that she was the only they abandoned?

  
...What did it matter?

  
She was used to being alone.

  
Well, she wasn't completely alone; her wanderings soon led her to the prison that stood in the darker corner of the castle grounds. Out of curiosity, she entered into its darkness and proceeded to explore. To her fortune, she then found that she wasn't alone at all. Down the rows of bars of iron and despair, she happened to find a man standing within one of its holdings. He was light skinned, had deep brown eyes, and wore very peculiar clothing. _Very_ peculiar. It was this evidence that led her to believe this man was a Hoshidan prisoner, yet to be convinced to realign himself.

  
"O-Oh... Em... Hi there. How are you today?" the man remained silent in the corner, breathing heavily while hugging his knees. He didn't appeal to Nina as being in the talking mood, but this didn't drive her away- not yet at least. "Hey, no need to worry; I-I know how it feels to be forced out of your home and taken somewhere you don't like. We can talk about it if you want. What's your name? Got any m-man friends at home?"

  
"Don't you have anything better to do?" his slight accent made it difficult for her to understand what he was saying at first. "You must be a pitiful thing to want to spend your time talking to prisoners."

  
Pitiful thing she was, and she didn't like facing the music. This ultimately led her out of the prison without so much as an additional word. Again she met with the chilly air that awaited her outside.

  
There's a friend for her: the chilly air. It was waiting for her to return, and it welcomed her by surrounding her with itself. What a comforting thought, but it wasn't a comforting feeling. Nina didn't want to be in the cold, even though it was offering her its hospitality. She returned to her den, which she effortlessly slid inside. Upon kicking off her shoes, she bundled herself in her blankets, curled her form, and chose to close her eyes to drift into a more appealing realm.

  
Her return to slumber was pointless, as it offered her no dreams, nor refreshment. This would be because, just a while later, the entrance to her tent would be violated to reveal the face of a little excited boy. His eyes were wide and young, as was his fresh smile, as he crawled his way deeper into her dwelling until he was seated at her side and nudging her awake. When her eyes opened, she groggily turned her head up to him with a moan.

  
"Mmm... Hi Percy."

  
"Hiya, Nina. I was wondering if you wanted to come eat lunch with me. Benny said he would join us and share his sugar cubes! Doesn't that sound like a blast?"

  
Nina stared for a while, but this session did not end the way Percy wanted it to; she shook her head and retracted it into the shelter of her covers, which she pulled and sealed over her entire body. Afterwards, she didn't so much as budge to any other motions made by her visitor. Several unsuccessful attempts finally made him depart, heavy hearted.

  
An hour or so had Percy return, except he was far different in appearance. Instead of being short and stubby, he had grown tall and lanky. His gray hair that once grew short was now long and aqua, some even shielding half of his delicate face. No wait, that wasn't Percy- it was Shigure. He was far more appropriate than Percy was in approaching, for he knocked on the flap first. When Nina didn't respond, he took it upon himself to peek inside slightly. He found her lying form on the floor of her tent, still curled and shielded by her blanket, and it was a sight that had his face drop sadly.

  
"Nina." he cooed. "I'm sorry for interrupting your nap, but the others, including myself, have noticed that you've been asleep all day. Why don't you depart and join me for a ride atop Aiko?"

She didn't move.

"No thanks." and yielded nothing more to anything he said.

  
One final visitor came to visit her when the sun was beginning to sink. He was far more strict in nature, hence why he barged in without warning as though he owned her tent. One of his hands snatched the blanket over her body and tore it off with a vengeance. Before she could scramble to grab the other end and begin a session of tug-of-war, he tossed it outside the entrance of her tent. While she was lifting her head, prepared for a scornful mouthful, he reached out to snatch again; this time it was her ankle, which he used to drag her out of her tent.

  
"Heard you've been ignoring everyone all day." he muttered, to which Nina began struggling- even kicking.

  
"Stay out of my business, father!" she roared when her body began to be dragged across the lawn. A few minutes into struggling, when she surely had grass stains on her clothes, her captor finally dropped her leg. Freedom had her try to scramble onto her feet and get away from him, but he promptly snatched her by whatever article he could grab. This article happened to be one of her braids, which he began to gently tug. Said gentle tug, thanks to a tender scalp, was enough to have her submit to his will, so she slowly began making her way to his side, albeit begrudgingly.

  
"Let's take a walk together." Niles said slyly. It caused Nina to flinch and frown.

  
"I'm not in the mood today."

  
"If you don't, I'm going to make you."

  
"I'd like to see you try."

  
"Too bad. You won't be able to see me do anything at all." while he was speaking, Niles reached into one of the many pockets on his person, where he withdrew a string of black cloth. Said cloth would be forced over her eyes before she could react, then tied tautly behind her head. As she began to struggle and try to remove the handicap, she would be surprised when similar material snaked itself over his wrists. At this point, Nina was shouting anxiously and trying to get away, but she would ultimately be brought down by tripping over a stone she didn't know was there.

  
"Hey! What're you doing?" she exclaimed when she felt his hands bring her up and wrap his arms around her torso. He lifted her, then slung her light body over his shoulder. All the while, she continued kicking and screaming. "Father! Father put me down! Now! Father! Niles!" she halted her kicking to gasp, then continue with all the more sincerity. "You're throwing me in the lake aren't you? No, no, no! Not the lake! This is Mr. Hay's doing! He's paying you do get rid of me for what I did Mr. Rock! I can't believe you'd sell me out like this, father! Curse the day you were born! Curse the air you breathe and the places you walk! Curse you! Curse you!"

  
"God, do you _ever_ shut up? If you keep your trap closed, you'll make things better for both of us."

  
"I'll never give, not with your malicious intentions. I'll haunt you until the day you die, and once you're dead, I'll be sure to usher you straight to-" she'd be surprised to feel her feet being placed on the ground. Beneath the cover of the blindfold, her eyes widened, and she, puzzled, attempted to free her hands. No matter how hard she tried, the knot would not give way. Lucky for her, Niles reached down and gently tugged her blindness down her neck, granting her vision.

  
Her olive eyes widened at the sight of the inside of the mess hall, where all stood gathered around a table, surrounding a bowl of fresh strawberries with a banner hanging behind them. They were all she knew- those friend and those foe.

  
Shigure.

Percy.

  
Soleil.

  
Siegbert.

  
Velouria.

  
Beruka.

Ignatius.

  
Shura.

  
Benny.

  
Corrin.

  
Felicia.

  
Laslow.

  
Keaton.

  
Nyx.

  
Kana.

  
Selena.

  
Effie.

  
The sight left her speechless, more so when they all mustered a shout:

  
"Happy birthday, Nina!"

  
Leave to her, the one and only Nina, to feel her legs turn to gelatin. She closed her eyes and fell backwards; to her fortune, Niles happened to be there to catch her. Concerned, he kneeled down and proceeded to shake her. Not a single gesture could possibly prevail, for she remained zonked out, mouth hanging open, eyes shut painfully tight.

  
"Wh-What happened?" asked one from the crowd.

  
Niles lifted his head with a tsk.

  
"She's out cold. Too bad, I guess we'll have to eat her strawberries."

  
Oh, Nina, don't ever change.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done. 
> 
> Thanks for reading this mess, I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> If you, by some sort of strange stroke of luck, happened to like this story, I would recommend reading its 'sequel' "How to Win A War". As of January 31, 2017, it is currently incomplete, but I am dead set on typing that final word. 
> 
> Please, have a wonderful day.


End file.
